Familiar Faces
by ky2
Summary: It's the Ducks second years, and Julie gets a new roommate. Complete.
1. First Impressions

Title: Familiar Faces

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

A/N: This is my first fanfic, so please be gentle and if it is really bad then I am sorry.

 **Emma POV**

                "You have got to be joking? Someone, somewhere must really hate me!" was all that I could say looking into the room that would be home for the next year, I inwardly laughed at the irony of it all. I leave one of my pet hates at home, namely my mother, only to come here and get confronted with the other, namely ice hockey. It was all over one side of the room, obviously my roommate was a hockey fanatic, just my luck.

                I was about to step further into the room when I was hit from behind by something. Stumbling forward, I fell over my bag that had been dropped on sight of the room, and the fact that it was heavy. Who would believe how much clothes could weigh, but I digress. Anyway, after falling ever so gracefully over my bag, I turned over expecting to see a girl, but there was a Latino boy leaning over me, with a classic flirtatious smile plastered on his face. I know that type of look. 

                "Never gonna happen, now if you don't mind GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" Ok, maybe that was a bit harsh, but who did he think he was, knocking me over in my own room, in the _girls_ dorms, and then hitting on me, some blokes. Though looking at him, I might have found him attractive if he didn't have an ego visible from a mile off.

                "Ok, we believe you, you can skate fast off the ice too." Another male voice, have I gone into the wrong dorm or something.

                "And it seems you can't stop either, man you have so gotta learn" was another voice as a group of  4 people rounded the corner. Well, she is definitely female, so I might be in the right place.

                " I would have been fine if she wasn't standing in my way" must have hurt his ego with that turn down.

                "_She_ happens to belong in this room, unlike some people." You could see by the look on his face that he was not gonna take that. He was about to reply when he was cut off by the only girl in the room, "Sorry about him, doesn't know how to stop."

                "What flirting or skating?" harsh again, I know but this situation was really winding me up, I was surrounded by 5 strangers, with me splayed out on the floor.

                A little taken aback, she replied with a smile, "both, but we are trying to help him with the latter, flirting is a lost cause now. You must be my roommate?" 

                With that she offered her hand as a friendly gesture, but my independent streak would not let me take it. Getting up on my own, the only thing I wanted to do was get away. "I'm gonna go where I have more chance of walking without being run over." Pushing past a very bewildered boy wearing a cowboy hat, I left the room not looking back, and not caring what they thought. Just angry with myself, what a great start to my new life.

**Julie POV**

                "I take that as a yes then?" I whispered as I stared at her retreating back. That was Emma, my roommate, if first impressions are anything to go by, then it was gonna be a fun year!

                "She seems real friendly, sharing with her looks like fun!" Only Russ could say something so blatantly ladled with sarcasm, although it did state exactly what was going through my head.

                "Give her a chance, when we first met you, we thought you were a mouthy, arrogant kid, but then we found out that you were just mouthy. Anyway, she did just get ploughed by speedy over there." Looking round the group, you could just tell that they were all thinking of when they first met the Ducks and realising what their first impressions had been then. When my eyes fell on my TV, I remembered what we were here for. "Anywho, I think it best if we use another venue for our videos, how 'bout yours Ken? Even if your roommate does come back, I don't think that Guy would really mind."

                After the initial shock of being talked to had flashed through his eyes, he quietly said "Erm, sure, haven't got a wide selection of videos though, so could you bring some of yours please?" Still shy, not as much as when we first met though. The Ducks do that to you, the friendship helping you grow as a person. I'm sure after going to high school together, we will each be a better person, although if last year is anything to go by, there will also be a lot of drama.

                "Hey Jules, you still with us?" 

                "What? Yeah, sorry, fazed out for a minute there," shaking myself back to reality, I grabbed a few videos, careful to get the action ones, not the chick flicks, no way they would agree to watching 'Titanic' but maybe 'Mission Impossible'.

                Having made my selection I headed for the door, but stopped when I remembered, "Russ, can you pick up the box on the desk for us please?"

                "Why me?"

                "'Cos your probably gonna eat most of it!"

                "No way, they already sent you a care package? I love those cookies your mum makes." The anticipation laced through his voice, and bounce as he ran over to the desk.

                "No, but when I told her how much you liked the cookies, she made a whole load, but made me promise that other people would get them too, not just you." Trying to say this with a stern look on my face was hard, I broke after a while and all of us were laughing as we left my room.

**Emma POV**

                I may not have cared what she thought a couple of hours ago, but now that I was standing outside our dorm, I was a quivering wreck. I hated meeting new people, always worried about first impressions, and the one I gave was diabolical. What if she hates me? What if she tells everyone that I'm a bitch? What if no one ever speaks to me? Stop it, your getting yourself worked up over something and nothing yet again. 

                Another round of inner arguments, they were always fun, NOT. Stuff it, I couldn't change rooms for a couple of weeks anyway, some rule that the alumni set so that people would give it a chance before changing, so I might as well try again and see if I could make a better second impression. With that decided, I entered the room, only to be disappointed that I wasted that much time arguing with myself when she wasn't even here.

                Well, I have nowhere to go, two hours of walking round campus, I now know my way around and there isn't really anywhere worth going that I hadn't already exhausted. So that left me with the lovely task of unpacking my bags, just the two, don't have much to call my own, just a bag of clothes as mentioned before, and a bag of personal stuff, such as walkman, tapes, couple of photos and my box. The clothes went into the dresser on my side of the room, photos got tacked to the wall by the head of my bed, and the box got put into my desk. My side looked so plain and bare compared to hers, but I didn't mind really, it reflected me, plain and boring. 

My stuff set, this was gonna be my new life and with school starting in a couple of days, I needed to go and get my supplies. Gathering my bag, making sure I had my money and walkman, I left the room. My mother had basically disowned me when I told her what I was planning on doing, so it was down to the little money I had saved last year with my part time job of tutoring the jocks in my old school. It would seem that they also had this system here, though it was not just used for the jocks, anyone could apply for a tutor, and the student paid for it, or their parents, unlike my old school, where they paid, and it was only for the jocks, so that they could stay on the teams, favouritism or what. But if they hadn't noticed how well I had tutored those jocks, then I wouldn't be here on scholarship, so I had to be grateful for small mercies.

Knowing where that line of thoughts were heading, I put an end to it with my headphones,  turning on the tape that was inside, Queen, the best to clear my mind of things that I didn't want to think of. Me all set, I headed down the road into town to get my bits.

**Julie POV**

                Having got through 3 videos, it was fast approaching 6pm, and although we had managed to get through the whole box of cookies, we were definitely ready for some real substance, though I doubt that canteen food comes under real substance. So the TV got turned off and we all headed down to the canteen. 

                On entering you could smell the food, and so we queued, waiting to see what slop they would serve us today. And when we got our plates, it was definitely slop. 

                "It looks like dog food, smells like dog food, what's the betting it is dog food?" Russ's typical remarks. 

                As we headed over to our usual table I spotted Emma in the corner, eating on her own. Seeing as we didn't really hit it off brilliantly earlier, I came to the resolution that it was best if I try again, and if she bit my head off, then I could always sit with the guys.

                "Er, guys, sorry to dump you, but I'm gonna have another go at getting to know my roommate. See you after dinner."

                "Don't leave us, we'll come as well." Typical, he gets knocked back by someone and they immediately become more desirable.

                "No, not after this morning's performance, I think it would be best if I get to know her first, before I let you loose on her."

                "Say hi from us then, see ya later and good luck." There goes Ken, always being nice, no matter what the person is like.

                "Will do, and behave yourselves, I'm still gonna be able to see you." With that I turned around and walked over to Emma. As I got closer to her, I slowed down, was this a good idea? Well, I was stuck rooming with her for at least 2 weeks, so I might as well try. "Hi, look, I'm really sorry about earlier in the dorms. Please will you give me another chance?" I was slightly nervous but I wasn't gonna let it show.

                "Erm, yeah, but I think that it should be me apologising, I was the one that was rude to your friends and stormed out of the room." Hang on, this is a completely different character than I met this morning.

                "I think that you had every right. I don't know what Luis said or did to you, other than knock you over, but I'm sure he deserved all that you did, though, he will probably still be after you, what you can't have and all." Seeing the smile flicker across here face I think it is safe to say I've got another chance, so I sat down next to her.

                "I thought for sure that you would hate me, and never give me a chance to get to know you." 

                "Tell you what, why don't we start again." Sticking my hand out, I continued with "Hello, my name is Julie Gaffney, a sophomore and your roommate." 

                Suppressing a giggle and shaking my hand, she replied "Emma Nash, also a sophomore and also your roommate."

                "Well, we are definitely getting somewhere. As you could probably tell by my side of the room, I am madly into ice hockey, I'm on the JV team here on scholarship." As the words ice hockey left my mouth I saw her tense, "Are you alright?" Concern laced through my voice.

                "Not really, it may seem weird, but ice hockey is something that I hate with a vengeance." On seeing my look, she continued, "it's a long story, well not really, but not something that I would like to discuss right now."

                "With that in mind, I think you chose the wrong school"

"Well, it is also well known for its academic side, I'm on scholarship too, an academic one"

Seeing a look in her eyes that I recognised, I knew that it was time for a change of topic..... "How 'bout this food, it looks and smells like dog food?" Well it works with Russ.

                "Believe me, for school food, it is a lot better than my old school, there it would also taste like dog food" A smile, yes, she doesn't look so down anymore and she cracked a joke. I think that we are gonna get along just fine, and maybe I would be able to get to the bottom of this hockey thing sometime soon.

**Emma POV**

                Once we had both finished dinner she turned to me, "Look, I've been stuck with 4 guys for the last day or so, and I watched 3 action movies this afternoon, how 'bout we go back to our room and watch a chick flick? I've even got some chocolate that my mum hid in my bag."

                "That sounds better than what I had planned," off her baffled look, "I was gonna spend the evening twiddling my thumbs, but I can do that tomorrow." I completely forgot that I had only known this girl for a few hours, it seemed like a lifetime, so there was no chance that she would get my sarcasm.

                "You are so like someone on my te.., someone I know." Yeah, I knew that it was gonna be difficult, but I think that we will get there. 

                "Come on then, lets go, I suddenly have a craving for chocolate." Our trays got dumped on the stack and we headed for the door. Just as we were about to leave we heard a shout, "Hey Jules, you gonna say bye or anything?" 

                "Sorry guys, bye and I'll see you sometime tomorrow." Julie turned back to me and so we left, but not before I heard an "I think we have been dumped guys."

                By the time we got to our room, I was starting to feel guilty, "If you would rather, you could go and be with those guys, I don't mind, you hardly know me."

                "No way, I have been with them for too long and I need a good dose of femininity, 'cos Luis on his own doesn't cut it." That had me in stitches, she really knew how to make someone feel better.

                We spent the next few hours watching video after video, having changed into our pjs and snuggled down on Julie's bed. Stuffing ourselves with chocolate and watching the romantic comedies that girls love so much, we started to talk about our ideal guy. How we would love to be in one of these movies, have it happen to us, and after swapping our dreams we thought it best to get to sleep, seeing as it was 2 in the morning. Surprising how the time flew.

                I went to sleep with a sense of ease, today had not gone as badly as it could have done and I think with a friend like Julie, the year was gonna be fine.


	2. Merry Christmas

Title: Familiar Faces: Merry Christmas

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

A/N: This is my first fanfic, so please be gentle and if it is really bad then I am sorry. Sorry it took so long to continue, only excuse is work. Also I wasn't entirely sure of the dates later on, just a rough guess.

**Julie POV**

            School started and the rest of the Ducks came back. As we had pleased the school with our performance last year, and Coach Bombay's persuasive manner, all the Ducks were put in the dorms this year, and most were sharing, I still don't understand why me and Connie aren't though. Not that I'm complaining, Emma is really great, when we were watching the videos, we got to know each other, and with the exception of anything ice hockey, we can talk about anything. Its good having a break from it every so often, reminds me to have a life outside hockey. I really would love to know what her problem is with it, but every time I try to ask, she freezes me out. I'm in a couple of her classes, and from what she said, I think she is in the same classes as some of the Ducks, but she never talks to anyone, spends a lot of her time tutoring, she says she needs the money, and that it is part of her scholarship. I think that I'm her only friend here, hopefully next term I can get her to talk to others more, if I get to the bottom of this hockey thing, then maybe the team will be a start.

            So, a whole term has gone by and Christmas has come, I am so looking forward to going home, seeing my family and friends, though I will really miss the Ducks and Emma. I'm coming back early to spend some holiday time with the Ducks, apparently there is a party at the Banks', everyone teases him about his money, but no-one minds when the parties are always held there. We are also doing a secret santa, I got Connie, she shouldn't be to hard to find something for, maybe something hockey, though I reckon everyone is gonna go for something like that. Anyway, time to leave this room for 3 weeks.

            "Hey, Em, I'm going now, are you sure you don't want to come with me to the station?" I get the feeling that she doesn't want to go home, the lack of packed bag gives it away. 

            "Er, no, its ok really. I don't have to leave for a little while, I'll see you when you get back."

            "Am I missing something here? Are you actually planning on going home for Christmas? Cos you haven't even packed you bags yet." Oops, think I have hit the nail on the head. "You're not are you? Don't you want to see your family?"

            "What family? My mum disowned me when I told her I was going to this school, haven't spoken to her since September."

            "Why did you never tell me this?"

            "Cos its depressing and just another person to add to the list of people who don't want me."

            "By the sounds of it, this really hurts you, why don't you go back and try and patch it up. You could try asking why she didn't want you to come here."

            "Wouldn't it be to late to get back now? I mean I'm sure all the tickets are sold out. Or just to expensive."

            "Never know till you try, and what is the worst that could happen? Them say they have no tickets. Chuck us the phone and I'll ring for you." As the phone came flying towards me there was a knock at the door. Catching the phone, I turned around and opened the door, getting greeted by a big hug from Charlie. "What you doing here, I said I'd be down shortly, hang on for a little longer please." Having known each other for 3 years, he knew the look and so turned and left. The team has been quite tolerant to my situation with Emma, not pushing it at all and hardly ever coming to my dorm. 

            I rang the airline and managed to get Emma a ticket at a very cheap rate for a couple of days time, thought I best give her some time to pack and get the courage up. Looking back at my watch, I realised that I would be skinned alive if I didn't get down to the team now, so I gave Emma my phone number and told her to ring me whenever she needed to and to have a lovely holiday. I could tell she wasn't completely happy about going home but she had come to the realisation that she needed to sort it out.

            So that was the end of that term, time for the holidays and they were so needed. Goodbye Eden Hall.

**Emma POV**

            Hello Eden Hall. I must be the saddest person in the world. I am so happy to be back at school, just don't go telling everyone I said that. Julie was wrong, there was no chance of sorting out the relationship between my mother and I. Her words were something along the lines of: get out of my house, I never want to see you again. You are not my daughter, I don't have one.

            As you can guess, Christmas did not turn out to be a happy family occasion. It was all going great for the week before Christmas, we avoided to much conversation cos she was working a lot. I know we need the money but I think she was doing extra to get away from me. School was not even touched upon, but that wasn't anymore than I expected. Anyway, as I said, it was great before Christmas, then over lunch, I thought that I would try asking her what she had against Eden Hall. Lets just say that soon after she started shouting at me, I left the house, went to the local park and sat on a kids swing. I was there for a while, I don't know how long but when I got up to go home, I was ever so slightly cold, and it was getting dark. But I knew that it would be safe to go home, cos Mum was working this evening, apparently the restaurant needed waitresses for the evening, for the families who didn't feel like cooking after Christmas dinner was over.

            When I got home, I started packing all my bits up, just the small bag that I brought back with me. But, if she never wants to see me again, then I'm gonna need some vital things, birth certificate being one of them, not that I have any idea of where it is. That is why I spent the rest of the evening searching the house. I looked in the filing cabinet with all the important documents in, but no joy. Kitchen drawers, no. Back of the Hall cupboard, no. Only one place left that she puts things that she never wants anyone to see, me being me has been respectful of her wishes and never snooped, but if she is disowning me, then I was gonna look. I had a right, the certificate was mine.

            Unfortunately, or maybe not, I found something as well as my birth certificate. It was in a small box with a few other bits, a few photos and some letters. I sat there looking at them. The first photo was of two babies in an incubator, squinting I could just make out the faded date on the edge of the photo, 11-27-1982. Hang on a minute, that was my birthday. Was that me in the photo? Who was the other baby? Logic would say that one of the babies had to be me, who else would mum have a photo of? Glancing through the other photos, most of them were of two kids, as they were getting older, one of them definitely looked like me, and the other was a boy. I was shocked at one of the photos, cos it was at an ice rink. Me and this other boy were on the ice with a tall bloke between us, I could only guess that the bloke was our Dad. I continued to go through the photos, but they were all when we were small, in the oldest one, I think that we must have been 3 yrs, seeing as we were blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, and there were three of them. But did this mean that Mum had lied to me, she said that dad was dead, but she never mentioned a twin. Was she trying to spare my feelings? I never got a chance to get an answer, cos at that point I heard the front door open, hurriedly I pocketed the photo that was in my hand and stuffed the rest in the box, back into the drawer. Luckily, I was out of the room before she got onto the landing, she gave me a frosty look and then went into her room. I had such a lucky escape, after lunch today, I really didn't want another confrontation, its definitely to cold outside now.

            That night I went straight to bed, a lot had happened and it had definitely taken its toll on me. I slept till long into the morning on Boxing Day, and that meant that I missed Mum, that gave me the rest of the day to pack my bits, seeing as yesterday I had got distracted and had only put a couple of clothes in the bag. I stuck my dirty clothes into the washing machine and wandered round the house to find anything of mine that I really didn't want to leave behind forever. That really didn't amount to much, so much for 15 years of life, 2 small bags. As everything but my clothes in the washing machine were packed, I sat watching TV for a little while, occasionally looking round the room at what I was leaving behind, my life, but after my revelation yesterday, I didn't know how much of my life was real or a lie anymore. When my mother came home that evening she looked at me with contempt. 

            "What do you think you are still doing here?" What a lovely greeting!

            "Seeing as it is Boxing Day, there isn't anyway that I could get back to school, and I refuse to sleep on the streets."

            "Fine, but I want you out of the house before I wake up in the morning, I don't care if you have to stay in the train station all day, I don't want to see you."

            "Fine, on one condition, you give me my birth certificate." I was pushing it still standing there, but if I had of asked about the boy, then I would have definitely been on the streets tonight.

            "Well, I think I know where it is, stay here and I will get it for you." With that she left for her room, coming back a minute later, thrusting it in my hand, then turned round and walking to her room. "You best be gone in the morning and I never want to see you again, I don't have a daughter."

            Normally I would have been crying by now, but I was to angry to cry, when I got away from here and had calmed down, then I might cry, When everything had sunk in. When life catches up with me. I grabbed the clothes that I had washed, and put them in my bag, everything was ready for me to go tomorrow, just had to be gone before she woke up, I wouldn't be able to cope with another argument, they are really tiring. If I set my alarm for 8am, then I will be able to leave the house by 9am, she definitely won't be awake by then.

**Julie POV**

            The 3 weeks zoomed by, the party at Banksie's house was excellent, we stayed up way into the night and presents were swapped, everyone got something connected to hockey, but if you think about it, that is what our life is about. Then everyone showed of by saying what new equipment they got for Christmas, how it was all top of the range. Although the school supplied uniform and hockey equipment, everyone felt more comfortable playing in their own pads and skates, it also meant that we could have muck abouts, without having to be at school. Anyway, as I have been saying, everyone enjoyed themselves that night, catching up on the gossip with Connie was good, I found out that she and Guy were back together again, and Averman had got into so much trouble at his job in the cinema, something about the Ducks misbehaving in the screen, and Averman joining in, rather than stopping them. Looks like he will have to find a new job next holidays.

            The party was on the Friday night and so I had got back Friday afternoon, along with all the other out-of-state Ducks, we got picked up by Mrs Conway and taken straight to the Banks' house, seeing as everyone was sleeping over and then we would go over to school together when everyone had woken up Saturday. As you can possibly guess, we didn't get to sleep till 5am Saturday morning, and being the typical teenagers that we are, we didn't wake up till gone 12pm, looking all bleary eyed. When everyone had woken up, we had breakfast/lunch in our pjs and laughed at everyone's bed hair, it is amusing seeing Banks when his hair hasn't been straightened out, sticking up every which way, the only other time that you see it in a mess is after a game, when it is drenched with sweat. Averman's hair didn't look any different, cos it is always in a mess, but he gets away with it, cos it looks like it is a style.

            Once we had all taken turns to shower and get dresses, not that there were many turns to take, for a house with only 2 people in it, there were three showers. One in Banks' on-suite bathroom, one in his Dad's on-suite, and one next to the gym in downstairs. Times like this that we are grateful that Banks lives in a house like this, it didn't take as long for all of us to get ready. We all piled into the many cars that had arrived, Mrs Conway, Coach Bombay and Mr Banks had agreed to ferry us to school. With Mr Banks having borrowed the minibus from work, all our luggage got put in there, seeing as it was 13 teenagers, hockey gear and clothes and stuff for a term. Then the team was split between the cars and remaining seats in the minibus, 4 in each car and 5 in the minibus. 

We pulled up in front of our Dorm building, luggage got piled up on the ground and we all said goodbye to Mr Banks, Coach Bombay, and Mrs Conway. Now for us to get to our dorms and unpack. We all grabbed our own stuff and headed off, most of the team racing each other, but some of us just taking a leisurely stroll, loaded down with our hockey equipment and everything else. When we got to the corridor that Connie and I lived on, we branched off from the group calling our 'cya latter's. Continuing to gossip, we reached my door first.

            "This is my stop, what time was it that we were all going down to dinner?" 

            "Six, gives us time to unpack."

            "Like most of them are even going to start to unpack, probably go to sleep!"

            "Cool, I'll meet you at the top of the stairs at six, if there are any missing by 6:15, we go wake them, deal."

            "Can't wait, have fun unpacking!!"

            "Will do, bye." Ending there, I opened my door and stepped in.

**Emma POV**

            "Like most of them are even going to start to unpack, probably go to sleep!"

            Oh no, that sounded distinctly like Julie's voice, she can't be back already. Ok, she could, as she obviously was, now to hide this, go for the classic teenage thing, under the pillow. Just in time as it turns out, the door opened and Julie stepped in, obviously she wasn't expecting to see me.

            "So how was your Christmas?"

            "Er, not brilliant, should have just stayed here." Not really wanting to discuss this, not right now, I walked out of the dorm, chucking a lame excuse over my shoulder, and walked round campus for a little while. Campus looks really nice in the winter, some of the trees bare and the air feeling frosty, bit like my life. I wandered off campus and around for a while, when I came upon a park, I sat down on the swing. Strange how every time I have thinking to do, I got to the park, everything seems to make sense then, or at least, while I'm swaying back and forth on the swing I think so much better, I feel like a child again and can think things through with that innocents.

            The one thing that kept on coming to mind was the photo that had ended up in my pocket, it was the one of us on the ice, but mum hated anything to do with ice skating with a vengeance, though she never explained why, just said that it took my Dad away. She always looked sad and gave me a look that said not to push it, so I never did, just assumed that it had something to do with why he died. 

            Do you ever get those memories, that you can't decide whether you dreamed them or it actually happened. Whilst sat on that swing, I remembered one that I had always assumed was dreamed, cos I was on the ice, with a voice telling me how to skate. I didn't think about it often, because I linked ice skating with my Dad dieing, I may never have known or remember him, but it still affected me. I had sneaked out of the house a couple of times and headed down to the local rink, but I could never go in the door, it was to hard. That was years ago, maybe now I could go try again, it was the only link that I had with him and this mystery boy, my twin.

            I headed back to the dorms, but when I got there, Julie wasn't there, I was gonna ask if she would come with me to the rink, and maybe I could borrow her skates, seeing as I didn't have any of my own. Glancing at the clock, it was just after 7, I remembered that she had said to someone in the hall that they were going to dinner at 6, so that was probably where she was. Probably a good thing to, I was a bit rash, thinking of going on the ice, I mean, I haven't been on it for many years, probably not since that photo, or around then. I couldn't eat though, so I just sat on my bed, taking the photo out from under my pillow, I sat there staring at it, a part of my life that I never knew about, I wondered what my brother would have been like now, what life would have been like if they hadn't died, would we have got into skating? Hockey even? My mind went back to that memory in my head, with the instructions that I could here, I'm sure I could learn again, I should at least try, and I'm sure that Julie wouldn't mind if I borrowed here skates, I could explain why, she said that she would help if I ever wanted anything. I had never asked, but now I really needed it. I knew where she kept here hockey bag, so I borrowed the skates, wrapped up warm and walked over to the ice rink. Hang on, what if it wasn't open, I never thought of that, but seeing as I had started over there, I might as well try. Luckily it was, so I walked over to a bench right by one of the doors onto the ice, Now to put the skates on. I can't believe I had got this far, I was shaking so much and am surprised that I managed to tie the skates up, I had a voice in my head, the one that was becoming more and more familiar now, "got to be tied tight, don't want to break your ankles now". So I followed as instructed, nearly cutting off the circulation.

            I stood then and walked to the door, it was weird walking in the skated, have to walk differently than normal, anyway, I was shaking more and more now, but I had got this far and was not gonna back down now. This was for my missing family that I never got to know. 

            Looking up into the rafters I called "this is for both of you, please help me." Stepping onto the ice, I felt unsteady, but inside it felt right somehow. Then the instructions ran through my head, keep you balance central, glide, bend your knees, lean forwards. I kept on thinking this and pushed forwards, running through these instructions and concentrating, thinking about the photos and everything that had happened this holiday, was that the last of my family gone, was I completely on my own now, 15 with no one to call family.

            "Hey, what you think your doing on our ice?" Splat.


	3. Realisation

Title: Familiar Faces: Realisation

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews and hope that you continue to like it.

**Julie POV**

            As you can probably guess, only half the guys were at the top of the stairs at 6, so we spent 15 minutes going round the rest of the dorms. A few ducks got slightly wet, but it was their own fault, we shock them for a few minutes, well some of them anyway. By experience, it is safe to splash some from a distance, such as Portman and Fulton, Ken once got a black eye when he tried to shake them awake, no one has ever tried again, water all the way.

            Anyway, we got to dinner at 6-30 and got through it without to much hassle, as the dinning room was half empty and we weren't disturbing many people. As dinner was finishing and we were discussing what to do, the main suggestion was can you guess, yep, hockey. Just a friendly game though, read: 'see how much testosterone I have'. We went to the dorms to get our hockey bags, seeing as we needed the equipment and it got it out of our rooms, it takes up so much space, so it is usually stored in our lockers. Meeting at the top of the stairs, we wandered over, being our normal, noisy selves. 

            Entering the foyer and going straight into our locker room, we got ready, just our skates and stick, though me and Goldberg put on a few pads, by experience, even in fun games, Fulton's slap shot and Russ's knuckle puck hurt.

            "Alright, who took my skates?"  I'm sure they were in my bag, I wouldn't have left them at home.

            "No one, we all value our lives." joked Russ, but with a look from me he stopped.

            "Just put on your old ones and we'll find them later." Voice of reason again, Captain Charlie, just cos he can't wait to get on the ice.

            "Ok, I'll see you out there in a minute." I'm sure I packed them, where could they have gone? Oh well, best get out there, otherwise one team is gonna be short a goalie.

            "Hey, what you think your doing on our ice?" Sounds interesting, wonder what is going on. Pushing tot he front, I recognised the heap on the other side of the ice, "Emma!" With that I skated over to her."

            "You know her, well get her off the ice, she doesn't look like she can handle, time with us."

            "Portman, shut up."

            I reached Emma in seconds, bending down, I noticed tears streaming down her checks. "Sh, its alright, lets go back to the dorms, we can talk." At that point, Banks stopped by the boards behind Emma.

            "Want some help taking her back?"

            "If you could please." Out we went, me and Banks supporting Emma between us, she was still a mess, I don't think that she actually knows what was going on. When we walked past the team, they just watched us, knowing by the look that I gave them to leave it, not say anything just then. I nodded to Banks to pick up Emma's trainers, as we walked past them, and we continued into the locker room, so that we could change into our shoes and out of my pads. We got changed in silence, no one saying anything, just silent looks between me and Banksie, looks of worry, I had to get to the bottom of this tonight.

            Arriving at our dorm, we put Emma on her bed, then I walked with Banksie to the dorm, "Thanks for the help, don't think I could have managed her on my own."

            "It's fine, he can be thoughtless at times. Good luck, and see you tomorrow."

            "Bye."

**Emma POV**

            Somehow I managed to get from the ice to my bed, I think that Julie and one of her team helped me. I don't know, all I do know is that I felt safe, like I belonged for the first time in ages. When Julie sat next to me and hugged me, everything came out, how I had no mother, she had lied to me. I'm not sure how much Julie understood, cos I was rambling and crying hard. In the end, she told me to cry and then we would talk about it. 

After an hour of crying, I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I know, I am lying on my bed, with my blanket over me. Sitting up, I looked around the room, it was 7am, I had slept for longer than I have ever done, but I felt so much better. I needed a shower, something to occupy my mind, so I went into the bathroom and stood under the stream of water for a while, coming back to earth when I heard Julie say she needed the loo. "Sorry, just coming out." Wrapping myself in a towel, I walked past Julie. I have to apologise for last night. I shouldn't have borrowed her skates, stopped her being with her friends, she is gonna be so angry.

I took out the photo from under my pillow, just sat there thinking. It doesn't matter how angry Julie is, I had got on the ice, I had done it for both of them. Just then Julie came out and sat next to me, "Ready to talk more?"

"Yeah, but I haven't got it straight in my head yet, what did you understand from last night?"

"Just start from the beginning, whatever you have to say, I'm listening."

"Well, Christmas wasn't really that great," I told her everything that had happened, how I felt and she sat there not saying anything.

"I can see why you needed my skates."

"Yeah I'm really sorry about that, I was gonna ask but you weren't there and it was something that I really needed to do, to feel closer to them." Looking down at the photo, a fresh stream of tears ran.

 She pointed to the photo that was still in my hand, "Mind if I see?". The look on her face changed, like she recognised something, "You say that your mum said they both died?"

"No, she said my dad died, she never told me about my twin. Why? Do you know something?" She looked away, something told me she wasn't telling me something.

"Do you mind if I borrow the photo, I just want to see if I'm right."

"Right about what, do you know something?"

"I have to check, don't want to get your hopes up. Come to breakfast with me, sit with the team, you look hungry, did you have tea last night?"

"Come to think of it, no, I was a little preoccupied. But do I really have to sit with your team, they must really hate me."

"No they won't, and if any of them are nasty to you, they will have me to deal with." That brought a smile to my face, just imagine Julie beating up big tough hockey players. With that, we both got dressed and walked down to breakfast, collected our food, then the bit I was dreading. Approaching the table, I could sense that many eyes were on me, Julie pushed me over to some spare seats, and directed me to sit next to the only other girl on the table. 

"Emma, this is Connie, Connie Emma." She introduced me to the girl and whispered in my ear that she just had to do something, she would be back in a minute. 

I gave her a pleading look, "please don't leave me."

"It'll be fine, Connie will look after you, make sure they leave you alone, won't you?"

"Yeah, definitely, us girls have to stick together."

**Julie POV**

            I know Connie would look after Emma, and everyone else knew that if they messed with her, then they would have me to deal with. Right now, I had to find out if my hunch was right. Looking round the room, I saw him over by the breakfast queue. 

            "Hi, how is your roommate now?"

            "Yeah, she is better, thanks for helping last night."

            "Its fine, anytime, did she talk to you?"

            "Eventually. Adam, do you mind if we go outside, I've got something I need to ask you?"

            "Sure, let me just take this out cos I'm starving." He picked up an orange and some toast and we walked out to the hall.

            Stopping on the closest bench, I turned to Banks. "I was wondering if there was anything that you could tell me about this photo?"

            Taking it out of my hand, he stared at it. "Where did you get this?"

            "Doesn't matter right now, but do you recognise it?"

            "Yes, its mine, I keep it where no one can find it. You see the boy, well that is me," I knew it, he still has those eyes. "And the man, well that's my Dad, and the girl, well she was my twin."

            "What do you mean was?"

            "Well, when we were about three, my mum and sister were both killed in a car accident." He looked so sad.

            "Adam, this may be hard to hear, but this photo is Emma's, she says that she is the girl, and that the man and boy, were killed, something to do with hockey."

            "She can't be though, she is dead." Suddenly he got up and stalked into the dinning room, and over to our table.

            "Who do you think you are, how did you get this photo?" he was shouting at Emma and waving the photo at her.

            "It was in my mum's cupboard." Emma was getting nervous, more so than she already was. Charlie was closest to Adam and took the photo off him.

            "Why did she have a photo of Banks and his dad with a girl?" Trust Charlie to say something when he should have stayed quiet. Just then Emma started crying and ran off. Adam just stood there looking angry. I grabbed Connie and ran off after Emma, she would need me now, did I do the wrong thing? I'd deal with Adam later.

            We found Emma in our room, curled up on her bed, just like she had last night. On the way over, I had given Connie the abridged story, hearing it again, it did seem slightly unbelievable, but as far as I know it is the truth. I sat on the edge of her bed and I stroked her back, trying to calm her down. 

            "I'm really sorry Emma, I thought that it would go better than that."

            "It's not your fault, but are you saying that my brother isn't dead, I have been in the same place as him for 3 months?" She was starting to calm down, starting to try and make sense of it all.

            "It would seem so." Connie had sat over on my bed, not wanting to interfer. On hearing her voice, Emma had sat up and looked over at her. Connie came and sat the other side of Emma and put her hand on her knee. 

            "Emma, there is something else you should know, your dad isn't dead either, and Adam seems to think that you are."

            "What, he isn't dead? He thinks I'm dead? Why?"

            "I'm guessing that is what he was told, you died in a car crash with your mum when you were three." 

            "But I didn't, I'm here, why did he freak at me?" Emma was getting upset again.

            "Emma calm down, I'll talk to him again when he has calmed down, we have practice this afternoon. Maybe I can get him to talk to you afterwards."

            "OK, you do believe me though, you don't think I stole the photo or something."

            "After what you told me last night, that was no story, but it might be worth showing your birth certificate to him, just for some extra proof."

            The room went silent, but Connie did the job that I brought her for, "I know what would cheer you up, lets go into town and shop, we have hours till practice, and we don't get to shop often."

            "But I spent most of my money getting home and back. I need the rest for school supplies over the term."

            "Who said we had to buy anything, have you never gone round the shops, going into the shops that you would never buy anything from and just try the clothes on for fun?"

            "Never really had the courage to." 

            "Then it is our job to help you, I did this all the time back in Minnesota."

            So that is what we spent the morning doing, trying on clothes, discussing what we would do if we had loads of money. We had lunch in McDonalds and then wondered back to school, we had to get back to practice.

            "Do you mind if I walk back later, I just need to think about a few things. I'll be back in a couple of hours." I know she will be safe and it is true, after the last day, she has a shed load of stuff to think about.

            "Sure, I'll see you in the dorms after practice, about 4ish?"

            "Yeah, see you then, have fun at practice. Bye." Then she walked over to a park that we had just pasted and sat on a swing.

            "You reckon she will be alright?" Connie was getting just as worried as I was.

            "To be honest, I don't know, but she needs time on here own, to think."

**Adam POV**

            After Emma ran off, I walked back to my dorm, well that was definitely an interesting start to the term. I don't know if she was telling the truth, but I don't know how she would have got hold of the photo, never mind know I had a twin, no one knew. That was a part of my life that was to hard to tell anyone about, a part that I had planned to never tell anyone. I had worked really hard at hockey, for her, Dad had said that, we had both really liked it as kids, we were both signed up for the local team, the Hawks. Dad pushed me so hard in hockey because he missed Mum and her, he was pushing me for them, I was pushing myself for them. Then I find out that they weren't dead, they never had been, Dad would never lie to me about that, not for so many years, would he?

            I went to the one place that I always went to when I needed to think, the rink. Putting on skates and taking my stick and the puck bucket, I stepped onto the ice. The puck bucket on one of the team benches, I skated round the rink, I lost track of how many laps I did, just as I lost track of what my problems were, on the ice my mind cleared.

            "Thought you might want someone to play against." How did he know that that was exactly all I needed right now. Charlie came onto the ice and over to me with a puck in hand. "Just some one-on-one. Nothing more, promise." 

            He deserved to be captain, he knew exactly what each of us needed at every point in time, knew when to push it, when to leave us alone and when to just be there. Now was one of those times, where I needed him to just be there. We played for a few hours and then my stomach started to rumble, Charlie heard as well, and so we stopped and got some lunch. Just a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar from the vending machines in the foyer. We sat on the steps in silence, just eating. 

            "What do you reckon I should do?" He was always the voice of reason.

            "Talk to her, get her story without shouting at her. You really scared her this morning, and what if she was telling the truth. I cant tell you what to do, cos I don't know the full story, I only know what I have seen. That being, a girl with a photo of you, your dad and someone else, making you get really angry. Think about it, if you want to talk anymore, you know where I am, and if you need me for anything, let me know." Ending there, he walked into the locker room, just as Russ and Ken walked through the doors.

            "Hey there Banks, time for play." Shaking my head, I walked with them onto the locker room and proceeded to get dressed, and walked out to the rink.

            Coach gave us a tough practice, something about getting us back into shape, we had a game in a couple of weeks. I know we will be ready, we always are, I had other things on my mind, I could tell that Julie was waiting for the right time to talk to me, and I think I need to talk to her too. After practice, I got changed quickly and waited outside the girls room, I had to catch her.

            As she and Connie came out of the room, they saw me and gave me a look, one that told me that I best have something good to say, cos they were not happy with me.

            "Look, I know I was slightly out of line this morning."

            "Slightly, understatement much!" Not the right time for sarcasm, and by the look I gave her, she got the hint.

            "Alright, I'll see you at tea." Now it was just me and Julie, I had lost what I was going to say.

            "I think that Emma needs to talk to you, she is in a right mess at the moment, she doesn't know what is going on at the moment."

            "Well neither do I, I need to talk to her too. Do you reckon that she would though, I must have really upset her this morning?"

            "more than you can realise. She will though, but only if you promise to be nice and let her give her side, she has had a really tough time this holiday, and right now the last thing she needs is you going skits at her."

            "Why, what happened?" I may not be completely convinced that she is my sister, but that doesn't stop me being concerned.

            "I think she needs to tell you that in her own time. How about talking to her tonight, during dinner?"

            "If you think she will talk to me, I don't think I would sleep tonight with this hanging over me."

            "I'll ask her, how 'bout the two of you sit on one of the other tables, away from the Ducks? It would give you some privacy, but if you need one of us, we are close enough to call."

            "Sounds good to me, I'll see you in the dinning room at 6?"

            "See you then, and remember what I said, listen to her."  With that I was left to think about what I was gonna say at dinner, what did she need to know, well I suppose it would be everything, so I walked the long way back to my dorm, I had to think, and the cool air was always good for that.

            When I got back, I went straight over to where I kept my secret box. It contained everything that I didn't want others to find, including the photos that I had of me and my twin. After so many years of thinking that she was dead, could she really be alive, had she been only a short way away for the last 3 months? After tonight, we should know, hopefully she will talk to me, I have never been as angry as this morning, it was more shock than anything else, though by the look on her face, she was shocked to. When I go to bed tonight, my whole life may be different.

A/N: I thought another POV was needed, I may do it from other peoples as well, see where the story takes me.


	4. Pieces of a Puzzle

Title: Familiar Faces: Pieces of a Puzzle

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews and hope that you continue to like it.

 This one is a little crazy with the view points, I couldn't' decide whose to do it from, and didn't think that it was worth doing it twice, so you got it as follows with no particular POV. Sorry, hope I don't confuse you to much. If you like it better this way let me know.

            "No"

            "What do you mean, no?"

            "I can't do it."__

            "Yes you can, your nearly there anyway, you need to do this."

            "I'm sure I'll cope without doing it, I've lived this long without a brother, sure I can live a while longer." By this stage Emma was shaking so much that she had stopped shaking, "Anyway, he hates me, probably only agreed to talk to me so he could shout some more."

            "Don't be silly," walking over to the dinning room door, Julie looked through. Sat at a table in the corner was Adam, he was looking really nervous, more than she had ever seen him, even before matches. " Believe me, he looks to be in the same state as you, what you saw this morning was not a normal Adam. He was in shock, someone he thought was dead, wasn't, takes a little while to get your head round, don't you reckon?"

            "Ok, fine, but I can't do it alone. I wouldn't be able to handle it if he did start shouting. Please can you come with me? I really need you there, I know it is a lot to ask, but you being there would mean so much to me."

            "I would love to be there for you, but I think that one of us should make sure that Adam doesn't mind, it is gonna be hard for him to. Do you want me to go and ask him?"

            "Would you please?" I wouldn't be able to face him alone, if he said no, then I can't do it.

            Julie walked through the dinning room and over to the table that Adam was sat on. "Please don't tell me she isn't coming? I didn't mean to shout at her, I need to tell her I'm sorry. I _need_ to talk to her!"

            "It's ok, calm down, she is coming, but she wanted me to ask if you would mind if I sat with you as well. She is really nervous and scared, but if you don't want me to be here then I won't as long as you promise to be nice to her."

            "Was that all, you would not believe what was going through my mind as you walked over alone. Yes please do join us," just as Julie was gonna walk away, he continued, "but can I get someone else to sit with us to?"

            "Well it is only fair, she has me."

            "You sure she won't mind?"

            "I'll check, but I'm sure it'll be fine. I'll go and get her."

            Back in the hallway, Emma was sat on the floor chewing on her fingers, as the door opened for the 3rd time, she faced Julie and looked eagerly at her to get the answer.

            "It's fine with him, but he did ask if he could have someone as well."

            "It's not gonna be that big nasty one is it?"

            "Not likely, probably Charlie, our captain."

            "I can handle that, as long as you promise not to go anywhere."

            "I promise. Shall we go then?"

            "I suppose so, I'm gonna have to face him at some stage, might as well be now."

            Walking over to the main Duck table, as it was called by everyone in the school now, Adam was amazed at how calm everyone seemed to be, like they didn't have a care in the world, though none of them actually knew what was going on with him, apart from Connie, but she only knew Emma's story. 

            "You finally decide to join us?" Luis asked as he spotted Adam walking over.

            " Er, no there is something I need to do." he hesitated a minute then looked ove at Charlie, "Charlie, can I talk to you for a minute?"

            "Sure, let me just grab my food and I'll come and sit with you over there?"

            "That would be great. Thanks."

            No one knew how, but Charlie always understood the subtle things and knew what was needed, and now he sensed that Adam needed him to sit with him. "You know you said on the ice that if I needed anything then to just ask?" Off Charlie's nod he continued, "well I need you, I'm gonna talk to her, but I can't do it alone, can you just sit with us?  Don't worry, Julie is gonna be there to."

            "Yeah sure,  like I said, all you had to do was ask." Charlie was just relieved that Adam was gonna be going through this alone.

            When Emma was calm enough and had got her courage back, she and Julie walked through the doors and got their dinner. Then walked over to the table where Adam had been sat. In his place was Charlie.

            "He just went to get his food, hi, I'm Charlie, do you mind if I join you?"

            "No, it's fine." whispered Emma, the floor was suddenly very interesting for her. 'Anything so long as Adam is comfortable, well as either of us could be'

            The three of them sat there quietly, Julie and Charlie started to eat their food, but Emma just pushed it around her plate, she couldn't quite face eating at the moment. It felt like she would be seeing it again if she ate now.  Emma was brought out of her thoughts as a tray was set down opposite her. Knowing who it was, she stopped playing, took a deep breath and looked at him.

            "I'm sorry" Both had said it as the same time, looking away Adam continued, "you go."

            "Ok, well, I'm sorry for running off this morning."

            "No, it was my fault, I'm sorry for shouting at you, it was just a bit of a shock. To be honest with you, I'm still unsure as to whether I believe you, but it is only fair that I give you a chance."

            "Well, I understand where you're coming from, it was a real shock for me when I found out I had a brother, never mind that he was still alive."

            "You mean, you never knew?" Charlie blurted out.

            "Charlie, shut up." Julie glared at him, she knew the whole of Emma's story and knew how hard this would be on her, she didn't need Charlie interrupting all the time.

            "Sorry, I'll be quiet."

            "Well, not until Christmas, then I found out, but I don't know many details."

            "What happened?"

            "Can we leave that for a bit please?"

            "Yeah," he didn't know how to ask, but he needed some more proof, finally he couldn't think of any other way than to ask. "Have you got anything other than the photo?"

            "Yeah, my birth certificate. Here." Emma passed the paper over to him and he stared at the writing. 

            "Emma Jane Banks. Date of Birth: 27th November 1982. Mother: Joyce Banks. Father: Philip Banks." At that he stopped, there couldn't really be another Philip Banks that had a child on the same date, no way. There was no there explaination, Emma had to be his sister. "But why did Dad lie to me, he said that you and mum died when we were 3."

            "Believe me Mum is definitely alive, she never told me about you, but said that dad had died when I was younger, something to do with Hockey."

            "Is that why you hate it so much?"

            "Yeah, because it took my dad away from me, or so I thought."

            "Dad told me that for our 3rd birthday, he had signed us up for the local hockey team."

            "Why would they both lie to us? Why keep us apart?"

            "I don't know, but it doesn't really make much sense. The only way that we are gonna get a chance to find out is if we ask them."

            "Well, you could try asking your Dad, but it is definitely a no go with Mum."

            "Why, what happened?"

            "Let's just say that she doesn't think she has a daughter anymore."

            "Why? Is that what happened at Christmas?"

            "Partly." They both became quiet now, Emma was thinking about Christmas and Adam wasn't sure what to say next.

            Breaking the awkwardness, Julie said "This food was great, I'm gonna go and get pudding, Charlie, you gonna join me?" Charlie didn't respond, so Julie kicked him hard under the table, once she had his attention she gave him a 'give them some space' look.

            "Yeah, I would love to join you." So the two left them alone, playing with there food. Once they had their pudding, they went to the Duck table, rather than going back with to Emma and Adam.

            "How did it go?" Connie asked as the two of them sat down

            "Its gone ok so far, they aren't talking much at the moment, I thought that they would be ok on their own now though."

            "Yeah, but you could have nudged me a bit gentler, I'm gonna have a bruise for ages now."

            "Serves you right for not getting the hint."

            "Talking about not getting it, is someone gonna tell us what is going on?" Portman always felt that he should know what was going on.

            "No, they will tell you when they are ready, until then, just don't be to hard on either of them. I think that Emma might be joining us a bit more, if all goes well."

            "They getting together? After this morning's display, it would be a quick turn around." Dating, the only thing on Luis' mind.

            "No way, you will so laugh when you actually find out what is going on, I am gonna remind you of that comment." Connie, trying to change the topic then continued to ask everyone how they thought the next game would go. The conversation on the table continued on like this for a long time, and only Julie and Charlie noticed when Adam and Emma got up and left the room, with a conversation in looks, they decided they would be alright on there own now.

            Once Julie and Charlie had left Emma and Adam alone, they sat there staring at their food and eventually eating some. "This food really does taste awful." Way to go for conversation Adam, well done.

            "It isn't the worst, you should have seen it at my old school." Smiling, Emma remembered the slop that they got fed.

            "I'm not really hungry anyway, I have some crisps and stuff back in my room, and some things that you might want to see."

            "Really, what?"

            "Well, some photos and other bits, plus I can tell you what has been going on in my life a lot easier if you see some of the bits in my room."

            "Ok then, crisps sounds good, do you think we should tell Julie and Charlie where we are going?"

            Looking over at the table, they could see that they were deep in conversation. "Probably wouldn't realise if we go, they left us anyway."

            "Cool, lets go then." She may only really know Adam for  little while, but she felt safe with him, like she had know him for ages. And so they dumped their trays in the pile and walked out of the room.

            They didn't talk as they walked over to the dorms and didn't even notice as Cole came round the corner in front of them.

            "What you doing with him, you do realise that he is a hockey player?"

            "Just leave me alone, we don't have another session until the end of the week."

            "I thought you said that you don't date hockey players. You don't do hockey."

            "I didn't, please leave me alone." Emma was becoming real uneasy and Adam could tell.

"Leave my sister alone." Instinct took over, he hadn't spoken to anyone on the Varsity team since he went back to JV but now he had to defend Emma, defend his sister.

"Your what?"

"Sister, now go back to you little friends and leave us alone."

Cole had no come back for that, he was in shock. He stared after them as they rounded the corner. "His sister, now that is news."

"What did you call me?" It wasn't just Cole that was in shock, but Emma was for another reason. Adam had called her his sister and defended her. Like a big brother was supposed to.

"My sister, well you are, sorry if you didn't want me to." Adam's sureness had disappeared, now he wasn't sure if he had done the right thing.

"No, it was lovely, thank you so much, no one has ever done something like that before."

"Saves us the job of actually telling other people, you do realise that he will be going straight to the dinning room and shouting it from the door.

"Let him, I don't have anyone to tell, but will your team mind finding out like that?"

"Maybe, but they will get over it." And with that, they walked the rest of the way to Adam's dorm with smiles on their faces, as long as they stuck together, they would be alright. Both of them felt complete now, like a part of them had been missing that they didn't realise.


	5. Getting to Know You

Title: Familiar Faces:  Getting to Know You

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews and hope that you continue to like it.

**Emma POV**

            Once we got back to his room, I was very hesitant about doing anything, this was his room, with photos and stuff around that came from his life. I didn't belong here, this wasn't my life, but in a way it was, or could have been part of if things hadn't happened. 

            "While I get the crisps, why don't you sit on the bed, your making the place look untidy!!"

            Was it really that obvious that I was nervous, and he used the classic way to get someone to relax, humour, well I could do that to, "I don't think that it is even possible for part of the room."

            "True, but it isn't my mess, honestly, that is all Charlie's" He pointed to everything over most of the room, except a small part of it, "I gave up asking him to clear his bits away long ago. We have come to a silent agreement that he leaves my bed and desk area clear, take a seat." He gestured to his bed, and so I sat tentatively on the edge. "Sorry, I only have Prawn Cocktail, is that alright?"

            "Definitely, they are my favourite." Taking the crisps off him, I was glad to have something to do with my hands, rather than picking at the lose skin on my fingers, I had been doing that so much today that they were starting to get slightly raw. 

            We sat eating the crisps for a little while, then I broke the silence, seeing as he had done a lot of talking already, "so, is Charlie the bloke that was at the table at dinner?"

            "Yeah, he's one of my best friends, though it was slightly rocky last year. Anyway, I was gonna show you some bits," getting up from his end of the bed, he went over to his desk and got out a box, just a small shoe box and brought it over to the bed. Opening the lid, he got out a pile of photos, "These are just a few photos that Dad had, he made copies for me when I came here last year, seeing as I was always looking at them. They meant a lot to me when I was growing up, every time I was finding stuff hard I always looked through them and thought of what you might have said, or suggested I do. I suppose that you were always the brave one in my mind."

            "Me, brave, you must be joking. I can't even talk to new people, I hate going into rooms. The main reason why I managed to get here on scholarship is because I spent all my spare time at the library instead of talking to people."

            "Well you were my bravery and putting up with Cole and preps like him every week comes under brave in my book. I could only just cope with him and the rest of Varsity for a term and even then it was you who got me through it."

            "It isn't like I actually did anything, and I have to tutor them to keep my scholarship and I also need the money." I hated talking about money and so I tried to change the subject. "I found some photos at home, just a few but I only managed to get the one that you took."

            "Oh, yeah sorry about that, you can have it back. Do you want to see these ones?" he passed over the small pile and I started to look through them. They were the same ones that were in the box at home, as I came to the one that was the same as my one photo, he continued "you see why I thought you had stolen it, exactly the same, and I know these photos like the back of my hand, I've looked at them enough."

            "Why does this one look so brown?" I asked turning it round so he could see.

            "Well, I told you that I was always looking at them when I was finding things hard, and last year it got tough at the beginning, being put on Varsity and the Ducks abandoning me. That photo stayed with me to everywhere, including hockey practice and matches, no pocket in a hockey uniform so it was in my skates."

            "Ok, first of all,  I am glad that you had something to get you through, and second, what happened?" I was worried and getting slightly angry with the Ducks, how dare they abandon him. Ok, I don't know the story but I'm sure Adam didn't do anything wrong.

            "Don't get angry, I know that look and tone of voice, I have the same. Anyway, it is a long story, and I suppose that it is slightly my fault."

            "Well tell me, cos otherwise I'm gonna be making stuff up in my brain, or bugging Julie tonight to tell me." Getting comfortable, I sat slightly further back on the bed so that I  not about to fall off, and turned to face him.

            "I better start at the beginning though, it is all linked together, starting when we were all 10 when I was originally on the Hawks." After that he told me all about having to change teams,  winning the Peewees, winning the Junior Good Will Games, getting the scholarships and then everything that happened last year.

            "I can see why they weren't happy with you, but they should have trusted you by then, you have been with them for 4 years, and by the sounds of it, have taken a lot of hits for them. I never thought that hockey could be so dangerous."

            "It isn't for anyone else, I just seem to be accident prone."

            "Not accident prone, just everyone else is jealous and wants you out of the way." Never having seen him play, I don't know for sure, but if he was put on Varsity last year, then he must be brilliant. "Sounds like you are really good, can't wait to see you play."

            "We got practice tomorrow after school, why don't you come along? I'm sure that Coach won't mind cos we have girlfriends watching from the bleachers all the time, I might even be able to persuade him to let you sit in the bench." Bench, not being up on sporting terms I wasn't sure, but that sounded like it was where the team sat.

            "Er, I don't think that would be a good idea." Remembering any experiences I had already had with anyone on the team, I am sure that most of them hate me. "Except for you, Julie, Connie and Charlie, I don't know anyone. Everyone else hates me, well some I know do, others I don't even know."

            "They do not hate you, from what I heard with what happened with Luis, he deserved it and he hasn't taken it to heart. Everyone else doesn't know you and will give you a chance. If you are thinking of what happened on Saturday, Portman gets really edgy when it comes to a game and he was pumped up for it, you were just a delay."

            "As long as you promise, I will be there, but I don't want to sit on the bench, I'll just sit at the back and watch." Hopefully no one would notice me. 

            "We will see tomorrow. We have talked about me a load, what about you? What have you done with your life?" Uh oh, my turn, there wasn't anything to tell him.

            "Compared to you, nothing. I went to school, lived in the library, got a scholarship to here, told mum, got disowned, came here, went home for Christmas, found out about you, got disowned again. Then you know the rest." Looking back at him, he was trying to hide his sympathetic look. "Don't even think of pitying me, it is the way that life goes. I've made the most of what's been thrown at me, and look where I am now. Two weeks ago, I didn't even have a brother, and my dad was dead. Now I have you and my dad is alive. Anyway, life wasn't that bad really, I was just summarising, the bits in the middle were good."

            "I didn't mean to pity you. You had an eventful life to, and we each had tough times, I just had the thought of you pulling me through." We sat there, neither of us sure what to say next, so I got up and walked over to his desk, there were a couple of photos on the desk. 

            "Are these the teams you have been in?" In one photo, they were all in green shirts, with a man in the middle holding a trophy, the other, they were all in white shirts, with the same man holding a trophy. 

            He got off the bed and came up behind me, pointing to the green shirt photo " That is from Peewees after we won the championship and the other one is after the Games. They are both the official photo taken, and we all got given a copy."

            Looking at them, some of the people were different "How come Julie and some of the others aren't in this one? And who are all the other people?"

            "That's cos they joined us just before the Games, we needed replacements for some of the team who couldn't join us."

            "Ok, but who is this guy next to you with bushy hair, I'm sure I would have noticed him at school with hair like that!" I pointed to the guy in the photo and looked to Adam for an answer. He took the photo off me and sat down on the bed.

            "He had to leave us after the Games, his mum was sick, he needed to look after her. He was my best friend after the Peewee final. He's the one who first called me 'cake-eater'."

            "What? Is that supposed to be a good thing? It sounds derogatory."

            "It was to start with, but after the final it was meant as a good thing, just something that everyone occasionally calls me." I went and sat back down on the bed, as I did, he put the photo down and looked up at me, "I think I get why dad always pushed me so hard with hockey, and why he never wanted me to leave the Hawks. I always thought that it was to do with money and class. He through such a hissy fit and continued to support the Hawks until the Peewee final. Part of the reason that mum and dad split has got to do with us being signed up to the Hawks. Dad pushed me harder into it and Mum took you away from it. Its the only thing that makes any sense." He seemed so happy that he had figured it out.

            "Yeah I suppose, but we can't be sure, you'll have to ask Dad to know for sure." Calling someone Dad without referring to a dead person, still felt weird.

            "I'm not gonna ask on my own, you are coming to."

            "No way, I can't" Before we could get any further into the conversation the door opened.

**Charlie POV**

            "You think we should interrupt?" It had been 2 hours since Banks and Emma had left the dinning room and it was 10 minutes til curfew. Julie and I had thought it best if we saw how they were getting on. We didn't know where they had gone, but the rink was empty and our dorm was the next place we were gonna check. As we got to the door we could hear them both talking, and knowing how Banks didn't like his private life being general knowledge I wasn't sure if they would want interrupting.

            "We have to, if they get caught by one of the dorm parents then they will be in a lot of trouble." Ever the responsible one, "anyway, they have been talking for hours, and with the barrage they are gonna get from everyone tomorrow, they need to sleep."

            It was true, Cole had come into the dinning room and when he was talking to the Varsity table, he became quite loud and told everyone in the dinning room that Emma Nash was Adam Banks' sister. The whole of our table had turned to me and Julie, with a look of shock. We were then hit with a torrent of questions, we couldn't actually hear all of them, we just said that it was true and if they wanted to know anymore then to ask Banks. At that point everyone got up from the table, but Julie soon stopped them and told them that if they interrupted them tonight then they would have her to deal with. Let them at least have tonight alone. Russ then remembered what Luis had said not long ago and set the whole table laughing at Luis' misfortunate comment.

            So after having spent a couple of hours in Guy and Ken's dorm with the rest of the Ducks, doing our normal night before school routine of watching videos, Julie noticed the time and dragged me out of the room. Here we were about to go into we don't know what, they could be arguing, or laughing, or crying. Hang on, do I really want to see Banks' crying? What a scary thought, one thing that a guy never wants to see is another one crying. But I didn't get much chance to think this over because Julie gently opened the door and stepped in, seeing as it was my room and it would look strange me standing outside, I followed her.

            "Hey guys, how is it going?" Julie asked, using her caring voice. As I walked into the room, I noticed that they were not crying but they were not extremely happy either.

            "Ok, we talked a lot and I found out all about your hockey careers. It sounds really eventful, going from deadbeat team to state champs in one season." Not really surprising that hockey had been covered.

            "Yeah it was really, sorry to interrupt the two of you but curfew is fast approaching and they are usually really strict on the first night." Don't I sound really responsible, got to say something as not to ruin my rep, "don't want to get detention before term starts, Coach would not be happy."

            "True, and I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a long day, with lots of questions." Julie had to bring that up, looking over at her, she had a worried look, as if asking me whether she should have said anything. Whether I thought she should or not didn't matter, she already had.

            "Thought there might, didn't think there would be any chance that Cole wouldn't tell anyone. I suppose we better go then." With that Emma stood up and started walking towards me and Julie.

            "Hey Emma, eat breakfast with us tomorrow, I'll introduce you to all the Ducks," Banks must have noticed the panic in her face as she turned to face him. "Don't worry, me and Charlie will collect you and Julie from your dorm in the morning and we can go down together. They may be my friends but I really don't want to face all the questions on my own, and I'm sure they will want to ask you a load as well."

            "I suppose that I'm gonna have to meet them at some point, but as long as you promise that they won't hate me, and if you put me anywhere near Portman, you will die." Obviously she was still scared of him.

            "Definitely. One last thing, here's you photo back, and you might want to take this too. It was part of our birthday present when we were three." Banks got off the bed and walked over to the three of us. Handing Emma a black parcel and the photo, she looked at the parcel intently, then unfolded it. I recognised it immediately, a hawks shirt, really small, obviously to fit her when she was three. On the back was E Banks with the number 8, "Dad got them printed with the numbers that he had us signed up as, mine was 9."

            Emma didn't say anything, she just wrapped Banks in a big hug, it lasted for a while, and then she walked out of the room. Slightly worried, Julie followed after her, and I faced Banks, "So, did it go ok? No major arguments or anything?"

            "No, we just told each other what had been happening in our lives over the years, then I showed her my photos, the ones of the team and of the two of use when we were young." He walked over to his bed and started putting the things back in a box, I knew that it was best to leave it, so I started getting ready for be. We didn't talk again until the light was out and we were in bed.

            "Thanks Charlie"

            "Anytime"


	6. Let's Meet the Ducks

Title: Familiar Faces:  Let's Meet the Ducks

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews and hope that you continue to like it. I dedicate this chapter to Spaz-chick99, your reviews have made me continue this fic, thanx.

**Julie POV**

                "Emma, calm down. It really doesn't matter what you wear, they have all seen you before." Emma had been pacing the room for 10 minutes now, and everyone of those, she had asked if she looked alright. Not that anyone could actually go far wrong with jeans, jumper and trainers. I now she is nervous, believe me, I knew at 6am this morning when she woke me up fiddling with something. I had told her that if she wasn't gonna go back to sleep, then could she please do something quieter or get out of the room. She chose the latter and went for a run around campus. Next thing I knew, it was 7-30, Emma was shaking me awake, telling me that I had 15 minutes before Adam was coming over, and that I had to tell him that she wasn't going. Persuading her to at least get ready, seeing as I have never been any good at conversations when I'm not awake, I got up and dressed thinking of how I was gonna get her down to breakfast. Now it was 8-10 and we were waiting for Adam and Charlie, I wish they would hurry up, cos Emma was going mental.

                "What if he has changed his mind? He did say he was gonna collect us didn't he? What if everyone hates me?" She was ranting now, I was even starting to get nervous, it was very unusual for Adam to be late for anything, if anything he was normally early.

                "Will you PLEASE sit down before we have no carpet left. I doubt very much that he has changed his mind. Yes he is picking us up. And no one will hate you, if they do, they won't for long, us Ducks are very accepting." Saying that didn't actually help any, she was still passing when the door was pushed open.

                "Knock, knock. Sorry we're late, someone here decided that he needed to do something before breakfast. Shall we go down?" Charlie looked as exasperated with Adam as I was with Emma, wonder what time he was woken up this morning? I wonder how Adam is really taking it, he looks pretty worried for him, seeing as he always has a plain face on, now emotion to be shared with anyone.

                "Yep, lets get down there, I'm starving." and with that, me and Charlie started walking towards the door, ushering Emma and Adam out in front of us. Neither of them had actually said anything yet, they just walked along together looking at the floor.  After a while, me and Charlie ended up in front of them, looking behind us to make sure that the other two wouldn't here me, I asked "so what time did you get woken up this morning?"

                "Six , I chucked him out of the room, I was way to tired to be able to handle an unsettled Adam. How 'bout you?"

                "Same here, she went out running, you should have seent he state she was in by the time you came, we nearly had no carpet left." We both laughed at how bad they had been, then we realised that we had got to the dinning room, but Emma and Adam were a little way behind us, waiting for them, we all walked in together. Looking over to the table, I saw that every other member of our team was sat at the table, this was definitely not normal, at 8-15 hardly anyone was ever down, but not this morning. I looked over to Charlie and then Behind me to Adam and Emma, but they weren't there, I noticed Adam pulling Emma over to the food, it looks like we will haev to coax them out of there.

                "Charlie, you go over to the table adn tell them that if they want to live past breakfast then the leave Emma and Adam alone, to act normal." Once I knew that Charlie was ok with his task, I followed the other two over to the food. This was gonna be a long meal time.

                "I don't think I can do this Emma"

                "You can't! You know these people, have been friends with them for years. Whereas the only experiences I have ever had with them have gone badly. If your not doing it then I definitely am not."

                Like I thought, this was going to be a long mealtime. "Excuse me, but neither of you are chickening out." Turning to Emma, "I do not like being woken up at 6am for no reason," then Adam, "and I'm sure Charlie didn't like it much either." Then looking between the two of them I continued, "plus you were both like this last night and look at how that turned out. Me and Charlie will be there for you."

                "You said that ast night" Emma stated last night.

                "Yeah and then you abandon us after a short while." Trust both of them to bring that up.

                "True, but it was for the best we went, and we were watching you all the time, ready to run over if there was any problems." I think that hole was successfully filled, They had no other excuses, so looked down at the floor. "Lets get breakfast and head over to the table, and when you get there, just introduce around the table and see what happens, if they get to much then leave the table, I'm not gonna make you stay all breakfast time. Ok?"

                they looked to each other, then Adam nodded, they knew they had to do this at sometime, and now was a s good a time as any. I just wish I could do it for them.

**Connie POV**

                "What are all of you doing out of bed at this time in the morning, never mind dressed and down here?"  Charlie did not look impressed at our punctuality for once. "You are never all there for practice, never mind breakfast." This was true, when we had practice at 7am, most of the team wasn't there til 7-30

                "Well, we have now become accustomed to the early morning and so were awake." Nice try Russ but I don't hink that will work.

                "Yeah right, then if you are not all there on Wednesday at 7am then I will not be best pleased. Anyway, I know that you all want to harrass Banks for some gossip, but do me and Julie a favour and leave them alone this morning. It was difficult enough, getting them down here this morning, if you start bombarding them with questions, they may hide away in their room for ever. Ok?" Looking round at every one of us, he waited for some sign of acknowledgement before he continued. With a grin on his face he continued, "and Julie threatened to harm everyone of you, and she meant it. I'm gonna get my breakfast, just remember what I said."

                Charlie walked away and everyone looked around the table, I don't know about anyone else, but I was worried about how Adam and Emma were, it must be really hard for them, and meeting the Ducks was not an easy thing in itself, we are a scary bunch. Conversation soon started in a hushed whisper, everyone voicing their opinion on who was more scared out of the two of them, what the story was behind them. It continued until I noticed them heading over to the table, when I suddenly said load enough to shut everyone else up, "So everyone ready for school today?"

                They may be guys, but they got the hint, and for the few that didn't, namely Goldberg and Averman, I kicked them under the table, with great satisfaction. By the time they got to the table the conversation was safely onto the topic of school. They put their trays on the table and sat down, not saying anything. I heard a not so subtle cough coming from Julie, looking at her, she was giving Adam, some deep looks, nodding towards Emma.

                "Hey guys, this is Emma. Emma this is Connie, Guy, Ken, Russ, Luis, Fulton, Portman, Dwayne, Averman and Goldberg." Adam had gone round the table introducing everyone, then had looked down to his food, Emma had followed Adam as he pointed round the table, then looked to her plate as well. Obviously, they were expecting to be bombarded with questions, only we had been warned not to.

                15 minutes went by with everyone trying to make conversation about anything other than Adam and Emma.  "So you got a new additiont ot he table. Not gonna turn all dense on us are you Emma?"

                "Don't worry Riley, I'll still coach you and the rest of your dumb hockey team, though I can't promise that any of you will graduate, I can't perform miracles." Woh, Emma sure knew how to hold her own with jerks, and there aren't many worse than Riley and his friends, if she tutored them every week, then I really admire her for coping thus far.

                "Oh, fiesty Emma sweety." With that, one chair went scrapping back.

                "Leave my sister alone or you will have me to deal with." That is one side of Adam that you very rarely see.

                Riley and the rest of his team all turned to Adam, "You couldn't handle us last year, what makes you think that you can this year?"

                Then a lot more chairs were scrapping back, "because we are all behind him this time, and if I remember correctly, We beat you, hence Eden Hall DUCKS." Sensible, really sensible, hit them where it hurts, that will get them to leave us alone.

                "Just leave us alone Riley, I will continue to tutor the lot of you, just leave us all alone NOW." The Varsity team walked away, not without Cole turned around and blowing Emma a kiss. "Jerks, I really hate tutoring them."

                "Why do you do it then? Get someone else to do them." Adam had turned to Emma with worry in his eyes.

                "I can't, I need the money, with 11 from that team, I get a lot from them." Everything went quiet after that, but after a few minutes Adam couldn't take it anymore.

                "What is wrong with you guys, you are all quiet and I was sure that you would have harrassed us to death by now?" He said looking round at all of us, we all looked down. "Well, why are you all being so quiet?"

                "It might have something to do with us valuing are lives." Portman joked from the end of the table.

                This really confused Adam and Emma, "What do you mean?" Well, if any of the guys tell them, then they will exagerate and make Julie seem like the bad guy.

                "Julie didn't want us harrassing you two, so she said that we couldn't ask you anything. There was a small threat in there as well." Both Adam and Emma looked over to Julie with a thankful look on their face. Emma leaned over to her and they had a short whispered conversation.

                "Well, we do appreciate the consideration, but we might as well get the questions out of the way, so a bit of background for you. Me and Emma are twins, we got seperated when we were about three, we don't know why yet but we think it might have something to do with hockey." He got quiet now, looked over to Emma and she nodded, "so any questions?"

                The table was very quiet for a while, Ken was the first one to ask anything, "so, how come you left it until now to meet up,?"

                "Well, I was told that Emma and my mother had died. Emma wasn't told about me, she only found out at christmas." This must have been really daunting for Adam and Emma, they had the complete attention of the table, in the 5 years that we have know Adam, I don't think he has ever had the whole teams attention for so long. Emma didn't even know us and she was being scrutinised by strangers. "Next?"

                It went on like this for a while, people asked questions, most were answered, all by Adam, Emma just sat there quietly, looking at her untouched food. It was about time that we got Emma into the conversation, I asked "Emma, what's it like having Banks as a brother?"

                She looked to me with a deer in headlights expression, I returned a smile to which she settled down, "Well for the day I have know about him, it has been pretty good, never realised what I was missing out on, he seems to be quite protective," she looke dover to Adam, as did everyone else, and he blushed, "he stood up to Cole yesterday." She smiled at Adam and then looked at everyone else. She was getting used to the group, maybe she would fit in sooner rather than later.

                The conversation continued until the bell, when everyone got up to go to classes. Before we split Luis asked, "so you gonna be joining us for lunch then Emma?" everyone there knew what Luis was thinking, I doubt Adam would allow him anywhere near her though.

                "I don't know," looking over to Adam for his permission we all waited.

                "I'm not gonna be here at lunch, I have something I need to do, but sit with everyone else, they will make you welcome, won't you guys?" Looking at everyone of us, he had definitely mastered the big brother behaviour.

                "Yeah, she is one of us now." Guy stated, and everyone else nodded. Emma was gonna fit in just fine.

                "Good, we better get off to class before we get a detention. Coach would not be pleased if the whole team got one on the first day." We all split ff into groups heading towards our respective classes, calling byes to everyone. That had to be the most interesting breakfast for a while, and it now seemed like we had an additon to the group. I get the feeling that more questions will be asked before the end of the day.

AN: I would like to apologise, I realise that I keep on swapping from present and past. I am going to make an effort to stay in past, but my english skills are definitely first grade. Hope it doesn't confuse you to much. Also, I think that I should finish with the first few days soon, maybe 1 or 2 more chapters, but a lot of stuff has been happening in these first few days, or that is what I keep telling myself anyway. I better stop rambling and let you go, not that anyone ever reads the end authors notes, 'cept for me.


	7. Rumour Mills

Title: Familiar Faces: Rumour Mills

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

**Emma POV**

                Breakfast was so scary, it was totally not what I expected, I don't think that Adam did either. Everyone was trying to keep the conversation on anything but me and Adam, that was until Adam asked them why. It turned out that Julie had threatened them all to leave us alone, it meant so much to me that she cared and I told her so. We both agreed that it was best if the questions were got out of the way, so Adam told them it was ok to ask us, so they did. Lots of questions were asked and I let Adam answer them all, they were his friends after all, I didn't know these people. 

                Riley and his team came over at one point and Adam did his big brother act again, it makes me feel so loved for him to do that when he has only known me for a short time. But that wasn't the biggest surprise, the rest of the team also stood up against them, I don't know if it was for me or Adam, but I was very grateful. It would seem that I was not only getting one brother, but 11 brothers and 2 sisters, this team was like a family, and I was being accepted into it. Maybe High School life wouldn't be that bad anymore, and watching all their games would get me out of my books and give me some sort of social life. Just have to wait and see.

                Anyway, I went off to class after breakfast and the morning went as normal. Well not quite normal, I kept on getting looks from people in the halls and classes, I never used to get that, I always used to blend into the walls. Now it seemed that everyone knew me, or were being told about me, as I had a few fingers pointed at me. Looks like the rumour mill is working well today, saves me telling anyone, not that I have anyone to tell. 

                I never realised how many of my classes have the team in them, all my classes this morning had at least one of the team in them. History came first with Connie, she let me sit next to her, luckily the teacher came in before the bell and no one had a chance to question me. Then came English with Guy and Ken, I sat in my normal place as I got to class before them and didn't know that they were in the class, but they sat behind me, they definitely do not normally sit there, but I was pleased they did, as the whispering around the class was starting to get to me. Art was next, when I walked into the classroom, most of the class was already there, including the JV cheerleading squad, how they managed to all be in the same class was beyond me. Anyway, when I walked into the class I could feel all their eyes on me.

                "That's her, the one who reckons she is Adam's sister, yeah right, just wants to be popular." I heard being called across the classroom. I didn't know what to do, I wasn't trying to be popular, I preferred it when I blended into the walls, when no one noticed me. It isn't my fault that this has been dumped on me, was that what people were saying, to that point, I had not heard what people were saying, just felt the stared and heard whispers. Everyone was gonna hate me, think bad things of me, wouldn't be surprised if the Riley and Cole had suggested these rumours. Hold my head high an ignore it, just hope I could get through the class without breaking down, especially as we were aloud to walk around during Art. Just when I was about to cry, in walked Luis and Portman, not exactly who I wanted, but they must have heard they conversation, or at least what was going round, cos they came and stayed by me all class. No one was gonna say anything while they were around so I was safe. The last class before lunch was Maths, Luis walked me to class, he said that he had class over in the Math block, but I think it was just to get out of some lessons. I wasn't gonna complain as the whispering was no longer whispering and I don't know how I would have coped if anyone actually started on me. When I got the class I thanked Luis and walked into class, there sat half way back on the side was Adam, how had I managed to be in the same class as him for a term and not realise, but then again, it isn't like I actually paid attention to who was in my classes. By the look on Adam's face, he didn't realise I was in this class either, so I walked over.

                "This seat taken?"

                "No, take it. Didn't know you were in this class."

                "Same here, how has your day been so far?" See if his has been nearly as scary as mine has.

                "Strange, everyone seems to be looking at me and talking behind my back."

                "Well, at least it is behind your back." I then proceeded to tell him about my morning, including all the support I had from the team. He was glad that the team was being nice, though he was slightly concerned about Luis. By the time we managed to tell each other about our morning, in between working, it was the end of class and time for lunch.

                "I'll walk with you to the dinning room, but then I have to do something." So we left for lunch and he took me to the Duck Table. The rest of the day went on as the morning had. I didn't have someone from the team in all my classes, but I was getting used to the staring and pointing, being an expert at ignoring it by the end of the day. Last lesson came round, PE which I shared with Julie and Connie, cross country today, not my best subject. Connie and Julie were lovely and jogged along beside me, it stopped anyone saying anything to me, and me getting completely bore out of my mind. We gossiped about really random things, like what was going on in Friends and who was dating who, they also told me more about the team. It was the best cross country lesson I had ever had, and I got to find out a load more about the people that were obviously gonna become a big part of my life.

                I felt sorry for Julie and Connie as we got changed after PE, I was exhausted, but at least I didn't have to go to hockey practice now, it must be hell for them. I walked with them to the rink and sat in the stands whilst  they got changed, looking round, I noticed that all the old banners above the rink had the warrior symbol on it, except last years that had the duck, just goes to show that things can change. Just as I was wondering what was taking them all so long, they were on the ice, all suited up, it was difficult to see who was who, especially seeing as they were wearing their practise shirts, and so had no names. I walked down to the edge and waited for them to skate over, we talked for a little while and then a whistle was blown.

                "Stop having a mothers meeting. Let's hunt goose eggs." What was this guy going on about, he had to be the coach, seeing as that is what it said on his jacket.

                "Hey coach, come and meet someone." Charlie called over to him, and the coach started to skate over. He looked at me as he skated over and then looked round the team for some answers.

                "Coach, this is Emma N.."

                "Banks" I jumped in as Adam was about to say Nash, if mum was gonna disown me, then I would disown her name. Adam spun round to look at me and smiled, I smiled back. 

                "So the rumours running round the school are true then, you do have a sister Banks?"

                "Yes Coach, can she stay and watch practice?"

                "Sure, why don't you come over to the bench and you can help me keep an eye out for slackers." Well that went easy, I walked over to where everyone had gone to put their helmets down and sat watching the rest of practice. It was amazing how well they played, not that I had anything to compare it to seeing as this was the first hockey I had actually seen. Adam seemed to be the best by far, although my opinion is slightly biased. They ran drills for half the time and then had a little match, which was pretty even, I don't think anyone was keeping score anyway.

                Finally practice was over and everyone came over to the bench to grab a bottle of water. After drinking them quickly, they went into the locker rooms to get changed, Adam told me to wait for him in the foyer.

**Adam POV**

                "Luis, you even think about dating my sister, then you will not be living to your next birthday, you understand me?" I had pulled Luis over to the corner, there was no way that I was gonna let Luis mess Emma around.

                "Yeah sure, anything. You have really got into this big brother thing haven't you." Well, I had been doing this in my head for most of my life, I wasn't gonna let anything go wrong now that I had the chance to do it in real life. I continued to get changed, stuffed my gear into my locker, except for my skates and a bag, then said bye to everyone and went to meet Emma.

                When I got out to her, she was looking at all the trophies and photos that were in the foyer. She was looking at the newspaper clipping about the Ducks getting scholarships and didn't seem to notice when I came up behind her. "They were really proud to be getting the Junior Goodwill Game winners into their school." She jumped as soon as I spoke and spun around.

                "Didn't hear you come out, so what do you want to do?"

                "Well, I thought that we could skate some."

                "But I can't skate, never mind the small matter of no skates." At this a smile came to my face.

                "Don't worry I have that sorted, come on." I took her hand and lead her into the rink, over to the bench. When we got there I handed her the bag that was in my hand. "Here you go."

                She looked at me strangely, but took the bag off me. I sat down and started to put my skates on. "These are brand new, whose are they?"

                "Yours." I replied simply.

                "What. they must have cost loads, I can't take them."

                "Yes you can, Dad gave me some money for emergencies, and this is one of them."

                "I wouldn't exactly call this an emergency."

                "Yes it is, how can I teach you to skate when you don't have any skates?" 

                "Point taken, but I'm not comfortable with this." With that she sat down and started to put on her skates. Once she had finished I checked them to make sure they were tight enough, I don't want her to hurt her ankles. 

                "There is something else in the bag, from me." She looked back into the bag and pulled out some cloth, this was killing me, would she please hurry up. 

                "No way, you didn't?"

                "Yes I did."

                "Was this where you were at lunch?"

                "Yeah I went over to Hans Skate shop this morning and asked Jan to make it up, and to sort out some skates for you. Then at lunch time I went and picked it up, and told Jan the whole story, as I had promised to in the morning." Emma looked at the shirt in her hand and turned it round. It was our home shirt, with 'Banks E' and '8' on the back. I wasn't sure if you would want Banks or Nash on the back, but I think after earlier I made the right decision. 

                "Hell yeah." She jumped up and lunged at me. We hugged for ages and when she let go of me, she put the shirt on over her jumper. "You best not let go of me on the ice."

                "I won't, come on then, before we get chucked out." With that I walked to the door and stepped onto the ice, Emma stood at the door unsure, "look straight at me and I will be here, just follow what I say and we will have you skating on your own in no time." She obviously did not believe me, but I knew that it was in her blood like it was mine.

**Portman POV**

                We were all changed and talking about what everyone was doing tonight. When were got out to the foyer, I looked into the rink and noticed that a couple of people were on the ice. Normally, it was off limits during the week, except for practices. "Hey guys, there is someone on the ice."

                Everyone turned and looked, I then started to walk over to the door, but was stopped by Julie. "If you look closely, it is Adam and Emma, don't disturb them please?"

                I looked closer and realised it was them, but Emma wasn't wearing what she had on earlier. "Is that one of our shirts, she is wearing?" Guy had noticed it too. Everyone walked over to the door and watched them, taking a closer look at them. "Yeah it is, I think."

                Then Emma and Banks came round the bend so that we could see the back of Emma, "Not one of ours, hers. See 'Banks E' and '8', that is her number from peewees. Come on then lets go and get something to eat."

                With that, everyone walked away to dinner, not wanting to get on the wrong side of Julie. Anyway, with Emma and Banks out of the way, we could talk about them and try and get some more details out of Julie and Charlie, though I doubt that we will get anything more from them.


	8. Anniversary

Title: Familiar Faces: Anniversary

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

**Emma POV**

                With each day that passed, Adam and me became lower on the gossip column of Eden Hall. After a week, the only ones that still seemed to have a problem with it were the Varsity hockey team, but according to the Ducks, they always had a problem with anything to do with them. Unfortunately for me though, I had to spend 7 hours a week with them, tutoring, no matter what. Adam had offered to give me the money from what Dad gave him, but it was a condition of my scholarship, so I had to continue to tutor them. Anyway, after the first week, I had threatened to stop tutoring them if they didn't drop it, but seeing as they needed to pass this year to graduate, or no more hockey, they had little choice. Riley and Cole were the main ones that wouldn't let up, everyone else was fine when they weren't around. I even got to talk to some of them about when Adam was on the Varsity team at the beginning of last year. They told me how he was then, apparently he was very quiet and always had a photo with him, and I knew what photo that was, his confidence.  It was good to get to know about Adam from another view point than the Ducks, not that he was really that different.

                So, as the week went by, Adam continued to teach me skating every night, or after practice. I was no where near as good as I hoped I could be, but I was getting there, and the rest of the team would also come along and help me along as well. We had a lot of fun mucking about, and when Adam was giving me a quick run down on stopping, Russ noticed and told Luis that he should maybe listen as well. I don't see what his problem is, it seems that he can sometimes stop, but not all the time, he keeps saying that he is getting better, just as Fulton's aim is as well, just slowly. Bless him, maybe I would get it down before he does, but then again, I don't think that I will ever get up to any speed that I need to know how to stop. Adam assures me that I will, that it is in my blood, but I don't know, it isn't that easy. 

                Sunday morning came round and Julie woke me up, "Come on Emma, we got to go."

                "Where, it is way to early to get up?" Looking over at  the clock, it read 10-00. "Who in their right mind would want to get up at this time on Sunday?"

                "Someone who has somewhere to be, now move, get up, have a shower, get dressed into something casual and move!!"

                "Hold it, I still don't see where I have to be, I haven't forgotten anything, but I'm too tired to argue, so fine, I'll get up, dressed and then you can explain your ass away." Whilst saying this, I had got out of bed, gathered my towel and wash bits and walked out the door to the bathroom. There best be a good reason for this, Sunday is the only day that I let myself lay in. The shower managed to wake me up enough and when I got back to my dorm, I was ready to get very angry at Julie if she didn't have a good reason. Fortunately for her, when I got back there was a large group of people in our small room, being baffled by this, I completely forgot that I was angry and was now just curious. One at how 13 people manage to fit into our dorm and second on why they were all up at this time as well.

                "Anyone gonna explain?" I asked as I looked round at the Ducks, walking over to my bed to put my bits away and sit next to Adam.

                "That is what I want to know, but they said not until you get here. Your all washed and here,  so are you now gonna tell us what you have planned for us?" We both looked at all the group and rested on Charlie, seeing as he was Captain, and everyone else was looking at him to explain. "Well?"

                "The team had a meeting last night after practice and decided that seeing as you and Emma have 'been together' for exactly one week, then you should do something special. So we are taking you away from school for a few hours, not letting you do anything to do with school work, and making you have some fun."

                "Slight problem there Charlie, don't you lot have practice at 2-00?" I was not having the team missing a practice on my conscience, and from knowing Adam for a week, there was no way that he would miss a practice, especially not before a game.

                "Yeah, unfortunately we do have to come back for that, but seeing as Banks loves practice and you seem to enjoy watching us, it doesn't seem to ruin the day of fun theme. So come on, lets go." With that he turned to the door and started ushering people out. This worked quite well, as people were wanting to get out for some fresh air.

Adam and I were the last out the door and I leant over and whispered to him, "are they normally this sweet?"

"Yeah, we are like one big family and if there is something to celebrate, then they will find it. I'm just curious at what we might actually be doing." We didn't get to talk anymore as we were dragged along by people, they seem to be very excited about this.

First stop was breakfast, we had got on a bus into town and walked into a dinner, as we walked through the door, a lady turned round to the group and told us to be civilised. Either the Ducks came here often, or this woman knew them. The whole group piled over to the corner, climbed into two tables, and talked about what everyone wanted to eat. It was decided that we would get 4 plates of pancakes and share them out, so when the woman from earlier came over, it was left for Charlie to order.

"Well, we are gonna have 4 plates of pancakes between us, and for drinks," looking round the group, "usual order guys?" From this he got a round of affirmations, but I didn't have a usual, "oh, and what do you want Emma?" 

Looking at the menu to see what they did, Adam leaned over and whispered "I tend to go for their milkshake, it is the best."

"Ok, I'll have a strawberry milkshake please." I instructed Charlie.

"Cool, so is that everything?" He asked looking to the woman.

"For the order yes, but you seem to have forgotten your manners young man. Are you going to introduce me?" This women must know Charlie at least, by the way that she was talking and looking at him.

"Sorry, this is Emma Banks, Emma this is my mum." Well that sure explains a lot of things, not that they actually look alike.

"Banks, is that coincidence or are you related to Adam?"

"Yeah, he's my brother."

"Brother, I thought you were an only child Adam?"

"So did we until last week." Portman shouted from the other table.

"Hey, give me a break, I thought she was dead alright." Adam was trying to defend himself, though they were only joking.

"Dead, this does sound like an interesting story, but you look hungry so I will put your order in, plus I'm likely to lose my job if I don't serve some other customers." With that she turned round and walked over to the kitchen hatch to put the order in. We chatted until our food came , and then chatted more whilst everyone was eating. I'm not entirely sure what we talked about, it was the most random topics ever, but to be honest I and the most fun I have had in ages. Half way through, Charlie's mum came over with a cup of coffee and sat with us, demanding to know all the details, which resulted in everyone looking at me and Adam to tell her. I don't even know the woman and they expect me to talk to her? Well, unfortunately they did, but we shared the story this time, Adam has been telling it a lot this last week, and being round this lot, made me have a lot more confidence than I used to have. So by the time that food had been consumed and drinks drunk, it was apparently time for us to get to the next stop, not that they were gonna tell us where that was. So out the diner we filed, with everyone shouting bye to Cassie, I'm guessing that is Charlie's mum's name. We walked down the street continuing with the same sort of chatter the whole time, Adam stuck by me the whole time, which I am glad about, I may know these people better, but they still scared me sometimes. Julie said that it took some time for the out of state ducks to break into the circle as well, they are a very close knit group, I'm glad that Adam has had them for some of his life. 

As we wondered round the town, a few places were pointed out for me, like the original pond of the Ducks, after they had won the Junior Goodwill Games, the council had put a bench up in commemoration. Shows how proud they were of them, but this pond wasn't that big, no wonder they never managed to practice properly on here, I would have been scared to fall through, but everyone of the group just walked straight into the middle of the ice today. I stayed by the side and was showing no sign of moving,  there was no way in this world that I was gonna risk falling into the water when it cracked under the pressure of everyone on it. I mean, when they played hockey on it, they were a lot smaller and lighter, and it was a really scary thought. Unfortunately, Portman and Fulton picked me up and put me down in the middle of the ice, well Adam had told them to put me down, but I'm sure he didn't mean in the middle. We played about on the ice for a while, not that anyone was wearing skates, but they all managed to walk around on it without much hassle, I kept to the same spot the whole time. When it was time to move on, as Connie informed us, the group walked to the side, but I still wasn't moving, too scared, when Russ looked behind to yell an insult at Averman he noticed that I was still in the same spot.

"Come on Emma, your gonna get pretty cold if you stay there much longer." To which the whole group turned round and smiled at my predicament. 

"I'm not moving, I'll fall over." But thinking about it, I would be stuck here forever, "please help me?" I was looking at the whole group, I didn't care who helped, just someone.

"You put here there, you can go and get her. Now." He is so sweet, I just love having a big brother watching over me. We don't actually know who is the older, but he is taller than me, so he will always be my big brother. Fulton and Portman, walked over to me and picked me up, and when they put me onto the land I was so happy that I turned round and hugged them, then hit them for putting me there in the first place. To this everyone laughed, including the two guys, seeing as I punched like a girl, it didn't actually hurt them.

So that was our morning, it was now 12-30 and people were starting to get hungry, well Goldberg was, but in this group, that tended to constitute everyone. Our next stop was Hans' Skate Shop, well that is what it said above the door. When we stepped in the door, it was definitely a skate shop, everything to do with skating and hockey, amazing really. When the door closed behind the last person, the bell rang and out stepped an old man. 

"You made it for lunch then. Come round the back and sit down, you are making the place look untidy. How was your morning?" 

"It was pretty good thank Jan." Charlie started and proceeded to tell him about where we had been while everyone found somewhere to sit in the crowded back room. Jan must have been expecting us, because there was a big space in the middle of the room for everyone to sit with cushions chucked in random places. Jan went out of the room and came back with sandwiches and drinks for everyone and handed them out. When he got to me he said "Here you are Emma, how are the team treating you?" 

How did he know my name, why wasn't he confused at who I was? He must have noticed the look on my face, "Adam told me about you last Monday when he got the skates and shirt, I hope they were the right size?"

"Yeah, they were fine, thanks for asking, though I don't think that I will ever get the hang of skating." The conversation started up around the room again, and I talked to Jan some more, when lunch was finished, everyone sat around talking for a while. Adam said that he had something that he wanted to show me and pulled me back into the shop and behind the counter. There displayed on the wall were a load of photos and newspaper articles, a lot of them were of the Ducks.

"This is probably the most detailed collection of our history as a team, probably has more details than I can remember." We went through the wall and he pointed out things, and giving me some details about them.

"Hey, what is this photo, isn't that the same shirt that we got for our 3rd birthday?" I was pointing to a newspaper article on the corner.

"Yeah, that is our old coach when he was in peewees. He used to play for the Hawks until he stopped. Ironic really." We continued to look at the pictures until Adam looked at his watch and saw the time. "No way, Coach is going to kill us, there is no way we are gonna get back to campus in 15 minutes."

"Banks, calm down, we aren't going back to campus." the whole of the team had run into the shop when they had heard Adam shouting.

"What, but we have practice, we have to get back."

"No, the history tour for Emma would not be complete if we didn't go back to the old rink, so we asked coach if we could have practice there today instead. I have cleared it with the rink, well Jesse did really, seeing as he works there and could swindle free time." Adam just stood there as Charlie told him about the plans they had made.

"You guys are the best friends ever, I don't know how you managed to plan all this without me or Emma finding out, and all within a  week as well."

"Lets stop getting all girly and get to the rink then, otherwise Coach will blow a stack." 

"Hey" came three replies to his statement, "we take offence at that." Connie finished for us.

"Yeah, yeah whatever, but we still have to go." Charlie finished the conversation and ushered everyone out the front door.

**Adam POV**

                I can't believe that everyone went to so much trouble for us, it just goes to show how much we all care for each other. We managed to get to the rink and onto the ice within 15 minutes, so luckily Coach didn't through a fit. He may have been kind enough to move practice, but I think he may have had a problem if we were late seeing as we have a match next weekend. It was an important, we always found it difficult to beat the team we were playing against, plus some of the old Hawks team were in this one, and they still hadn't forgiven us for ruining their winning streak.

                So here we were on the ice, warming up for practice with laps. Emma was sat on the bench as she normally is watching us, I'm surprised she doesn't get really bored just sitting there. I'd have to ask her later but she doesn't look bored. If I don't concentrate on practice there might not be a later though, Coach is in his normal pre-game strop. After warm up and drills we finished with a scrimmage, which no one knows who won, seeing as no one really cares. The it just came to warm down, with cowboy round up, the classic, seeing as we were back at our old rink there was no way that we weren't gonna do it. So out came the rope and everyone scattered. During it I looked over to Emma and she was laughing so hard.

                "Hey Emma, got out here."

                "Bro, slight problem," lifting one leg so he could see, "no skates." True that would be a slight problem, especially remembering this morning.

                "Yeah there is, they are in the locker room, in the bag by the door" Julie yelled over to us. They obviously had put a lot of thought into this, so Emma reluctantly wandered over to the locker room and went inside. 10 minutes later, Dwayne caught me and I realised that Emma still wasn't out, so I went into the locker room to see what the problem was.

                "Hey, Emma, you still in here?"

                "Yeah, just over here." I walked round the corner to see her looking at the bench in front of my locker and the one next door. So that is why she was taking so long, she was reading what had been inscribed in front of my locker by Jesse and me, but there wasn't that much written that it would take 10 minutes to read.

                "What you been up to?"

                "Just reading the benches, this one id funny, I take it this is your locker?"

                "Yeah, when we all had to leave the team cos we were to old for peewees, we decided to inscribe our names on the bench in front of our locker, Jesse just thought that it would be better if he put my other names as well." Which he had, along with Banks was Cake-eater, and Preppy. Underneath there were a couple of other names, looking at the other benches I noticed that there was in the other places as well. Must be the people that took the lockers after us, the new peewee team. "So, lets get those skates on." As I pulled the skated out of the bag, the shirt I had bought Emma fell out as well. I handed it to her and smiled, receiving one back. 

Once Emma was skated, we walked back out into the rink, but the game had stopped and everyone was crowded at the bench, walking over I recognised a voice that would always be in my memory. "Jesse" grabbing Emma's hand I started to walk faster to the group. "Come on, you have GOT to meet Jesse."

"Calm down, I'm sure he isn't gonna run away or anything." 

When we got to the group, Jesse turned to me and gave me a very hurt look. "First off, 5 years and you never say anything about a sister, and second off, a week and I have to hear about it from this lot. Ever heard of a phone?" Oops, I never rang Jesse, I had meant to earlier in the week but must have forgotten.

"Sorry mate, but thanks a lot for getting the rink for us today, have you seen what we started in the locker room?"

"Yeah, it seems to be a tradition now, the first thing that anyone does when they join the peewee team is write their name on the bench, and they get very excited about which one of us has used the locker before." Jesse looked to the side of me and stuck out his hand. "Well, seeing as he has forgotten his manners again, I'm Jesse, you must be Emma."

"Hiya, I'm glad to finally meet you, Adam has told me a lot about you." Emma shock his hand, then the conversation started to dwindle.

"So are you guys gonna get changed, and please shower, you smell real bad."

"Oh, please, it isn't that bad, is it?" Goldberg asked, trying to smell himself, as did most of the team, but I could tell that we must do if the amount of sweat on our hair was anything to go by. 

"Come on then, Emma, you alright to stay with Jesse while we get changed?"

"Yeah sure, I'm sure that he will have questions and I'll do you a favour and answer them for you." Sharing a smile, we all walked to the locker room and showered. Before everyone was finished Coach came in and told us to put our kit in the minibus that was out front, and he would take it back to campus, but if we wanted to keep our skates, then we would have to carry them back ourselves. No one had a problem with this, and so our bags were piled into the minibus and we were back to the rink. 

When I got out there, Emma wasn't on the bench as I had expected her to be, but on the ice. Over the last week, Emma would never go on the ice without me holding her hand, it felt weird seeing her out there with someone else, I was also jealous, she was my sister and I was teaching her to skate. This set in my mind, I skated over to where Emma and Jesse were and was ready to get angry with Jesse, but when I saw how comfortable Emma was and how happy she seemed, I couldn't do it. She was getting on with my best friend and must have more confidence on the ice seeing as she was laughing.

"See, you don't need me surgically attached to you just to get on the ice." I must have shocked her as she tried to spin round to look at me, but only managed to fall over her feet, straight into Jesse. But with all the practice Jesse has on the ice, he managed to stop either of them falling.

"Thanks Jesse, and thank you Adam for nearly scaring me to death. Come on, just for that, you can stay by me all night and let Jesse go skate some." Emma grabbed my hand, smiling, she was joking, but I was happy to take over, I really enjoyed helping her skate. 

"Come on then." With that, I took her hand and we started off.

That day id the best of my life, well so far anyway. It was for many reasons, Emma got to see a lot of my old life and met a few people from it as well. Also, that night she went a little way on the ice without holding onto me or the side, it was only a few metres and she was still pushing herself along with the side, but she was getting there, and it made me very proud to watch her. We skated round for a while longer and then went for dinner at the local McDonalds, then got on the bus back to campus. It had been a long day, but the best, all thanks to the Ducks, my family.

It was late at night, just past curfew and the phone in my dorm rang, reaching over for it, I answered, "Hello, Adam and Charlie's room."

"Hi Adam, how are you doing?" Dad, oh, I knew that this would happen at some stage, but I really didn't know how to talk to him.

"Yeah, not bad. You?"

"Fine, just ringing to see how you are and check what time the match is next Saturday?" Oh no, Emma is most probably gonna be at the match, what if they meet? Hang on, that would be good, I could introduce them and then we could get to the bottom of what actually happened. "Adam, you still there?"

"Oh, yeah, just thinking."

"I didn't think that it was that hard of a question."

"No, sorry the match is at 2-00."

"Do you wan to meet up before the match?"

"No its fine, I'll see you at the end, got to get ready for the game before."

"Oh, so you do, well I better let you get some sleep, see you next Saturday and good luck for the game."

"Thanks, have a nice week and see you after the game Dad." Hearing the phone go dead, I put the receiver down and sat staring at the wall.

"Your dad is coming to the game next weekend?" Oh, Charlie was in the room.

"Yeah, meeting him after the game."

"Gonna tell Emma?"

"No."

"Think that is wise?"

"I don't know, but she won't go if I tell her, she has to meet him at some point, doesn't she?" Had I done the right thing? How was next Saturday gonna go? It had to happen sometime, sooner is better than later right? Oh well, just have to see how it goes, but Emma will have me if nothing else. If Dad doesn't want to know then we would still have each other, we didn't need him. 


	9. It

Title: Familiar Faces: It's Time

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

**Adam POV**

Normally the only thing that I can think about for a week before a game is practice, I spend every minute I can on the ice and when I'm not doing that then I'm running through the plays in my head. My life normally revolves around hockey, but right before a game, my life is hockey. Only reason that homework gets done is because I'd be benched if I didn't do it. Well you get the picture of how my life is before a game, but this time I wasn't, I had conflicting things.

Part of me wanted to concentrate on hockey, for my twin, for Emma, but then part of me wants to spend time with her, to get to know her better. The main reason I am so obsessed with hockey is for Emma, I played it to be close to her, but know she is here, I can be close to her by spending time with her.

Over the years though, I have also played for the Ducks, for the team. This left me with a dilemma, I could either concentrate on practice for the Ducks or spend time with Emma. It isn't working doing both, I know it isn't because I'm not playing like I normally do. It's not like I'm playing really badly, but just not up to my usual standard. I thought I had got away with it, but it came to Friday and Coach called me over at the end of practice. 'Banks, help me put the equipment away.'

Now Coach normally picked on the person that had been playing really sloppily, or goofing off, and as you can guess it is normally Russ, Averman or Goldberg. Obviously Coach had noticed my lack of concentration, and everyone else seemed to as well cos they weren't shocked when Coach picked on me. I skated over to the bench and started picking things up to take to the cupboard.

'Leave that please Banks, Emma would you mind putting it away for us?'

'Not at all.' Emma looked to me and smiled, with something as simple as that, she gave me the confidence to talk to Coach. It was the same smile that had got me through many hard times, 12 years and she still had the same smile. Putting the bits I had picked up down, I turned to Coach, waiting for the onslaught.

'Come with me to my office.' So I followed him silently to his office and sat in the chair he directed me to. I was starting to get nervous, was he gonna bench me for the game tomorrow, I'm sure I hadn't played that badly. 'Don't panic, you look really nervous.'

'Well it isn't everyday that I get called into an office.'

'No need to panic, I'm just worried, your game has been off for the last few weeks. Is there something that you want to talk about Adam?' He called me Adam, he never does that, hardly anyone does. Connie and Julie do, and now Emma as well, but to everyone else, I have always been Banks or Banksie.

'No, everything is absolutely fine, nothing is wrong.'

'Now I know there is something wrong. I may have only been your Coach for a little over a year, but from what Bombay told me before I took over and how well I have got to know the whole team, I know that that isn't true. So let me try again, anything you want to tell me?' He was looking at me, not with sorry or pity but concern, no adult had every really looked at me like that before, not that often anyway. The couple of times that I got really injured in hockey then I did, once from Dad and the other from Bombay. It was weird getting it from him.

'Well, there is something, but it won't interfere with how I play tomorrow, I will ignore it and play like I normally do. Just please don't bench me.'

'I wasn't gonna bench you Adam, you play better than some of the team now. You definitely aren't at the benching stage yet.' Relief swept over my face. 'But I am still worried about you, I know all about you bottling things up, and from what I can gather from my talks with Emma, you even bottled her up. Did you really not tell anyone about her?'

'Well, no I didn't, I know it may sound weird but I thought that if I told anyone about her then, they would take her away, take away the specialness. I played hockey for her, the only reason that I continued to play when I had all that trouble first with the Hawks and then Varsity was for Emma. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her and I didn't want to share that with anyone.' I had never been that open to anyone before, 'sorry, I didn't mean to say all that.'

'It's fine Adam, but the way you are playing at the moment has something to do with Emma doesn't it?' 

'Well, to be honest, yes. It is really hard to explain, but I used to play for Emma, to be close to her. But then the Ducks came along and I started playing for them as well, but now I want to spend time with Emma to get to know her. I  can't be fun sitting on the bench watching us all the time and so I start to think about her and how she can't be having any fun.'

'Believe me, she lights up every time she watches you play, its the same as how you light up when you get on the ice. She loves watching you play and when I have been talking to her, she keeps asking me questions about the game. She does enjoy watching you. She knows what playing means to you, she can see it in your face.' I wasn't entirely sure he meant this but it was a slight relief even if it wasn't true. 'but that isn't everything is it? Something else is bothering you?'

'Yeah, has Emma told you how my Dad told me that she died?' I was playing with my hands, twisting my fingers around each other.

'No, she never said.'

'Well, a long story short is that something happened around when we were three and Mum took Emma and Dad took me. Dad told me that Emma and Mum had died and Mum had told Emma that Dad had died, but she never told her about me. Emma found out about me at Christmas.' Looking at Coach, he nodded that he understood what I was saying, and to continue. 'Well, you know how my Dad tends to come to all the games, well he is coming tomorrow.'

'I'm guessing that it isn't the game that you are worried about then?'

'Well not really, you see, I haven't told Dad that I have found Emma yet, I was sort of gonna introduce them tomorrow.'

'It should be alright, he should take it well.' He was confused, looking at it that way, there wasn't really anything to be worried about, but he didn't know the main part.

'Er, Emma doesn't know he is coming. I didn't want her to panic.'

'So you have been handling this on your own?'

'Well, no, Charlie knows he is coming. But I'm really worried that they won't get on. It is really important to me that they do, that we find out why our parents separated us.'

'Sounds like tomorrow is gonna be really important to you and Emma then, can I help in anyway?'

'There isn't really anything you can do, but believe me you have really helped me now, just telling someone is such a relief. Thank you so much.'

'Don't worry about it, it's what I'm here for. Just a suggestion though, why don't you use my office tomorrow, it will be better than doing it publicly in the middle of the rink. And tell Emma tonight, don't just spring it on her, that is when she will really panic.'

'Yeah I suppose she would. Could we really use your office, it would probably be better but I don't think that there is any way that I could get Dad to come to your office.'

'Well that is easy, I'll just tell him that there is something that I wanted to talk to him about and bring him here, while you can bring Emma to the office.'

'Thank you so much, I just hope it all goes well. I don't know what I would do if it went badly, I don't think that Emma could take it if Dad rejected her as well.'

'I'm sure he won't, just don't panic and it will all be alright. Now go and get changed, you have a big day tomorrow.' With that I walked out the door and to the locker room, I was expecting a barrage of questions on what coach wanted, but everyone ignored the fact that I had just been summoned by Coach.

'You guys can go if you want, I just need to get changed, I'll see you at dinner.'

                This was answered by a few 'fine's and 'see ya's as people walked out the door, Emma stayed behind, 'I'll wait for you, but be quick cos I'm hungry.'

                'Will do, be back in a minute then.' Then I walked into the shower and got changed.

**Emma POV**

                I may have only known him for a few weeks, but it felt like forever than I had know my brother, I knew his moods and when something was bothering him, and this last week something has been heavy on his mind. I stayed behind after practice to wait for him and ask him as we walked to dinner. Once he was washed and changed, we walked out the locker room, now was my chance.

                'So you gonna tell me what has been bothering you for the last week?'

                'You promise not to flip or anything?'

                'As you have said that, I'm gonna reserve the right to flip, cos I'm now very worried and there is no chance that you are gonna get out of this now.' I stopped and pulled him over to a bench that we just happened to have walked past. 'Now sit and spill.'

                'You see, Dad normally comes to my games, and well tomorrow is no exception.' Adam was watching my face carefully for a reaction, and slowly it happened, my face turned into one of panic and I started rambling.

                'When were you planning on telling me that he was coming? How long have you known? I can't do it.'

                'Emma, please calm down, to be honest, I wasn't actually gonna tell you until I introduced you to him. That was until Coach persuaded me to tell you, this is exactly why I didn't want to tell you, cos you would have found a way of getting out of coming. Second, I have known since last weekend, and you have to do it.' He said the last bit with such finality that it was impossible to argue with.

                'But what if he hates me? What if he doesn't want to know me?'

                'Please stop that, I've already been through that every day this week, many times a day. I doubt he would reject you, and even if he does then you still have me and all the team. Speaking of which we should get to dinner before they send out a search party. Do you think that we should tell the Ducks what is happening? I mean, Charlie already knows Dad is coming cos he was there when Dad phoned, but do you want everyone else to know?'

                'I suppose we could tell them, it might be good to have their support encase everything goes wrong.'

                'Yeah I suppose so, come on then lets go tell them, oh and Coach said that we could use his office.' 

                As I have come to expect of the Ducks, they all were very supportive when we told them, Julie and me were up for a few hours talking, it helped lots, just talking it through with someone. I don't know how I managed to get through life without this support network and I am so glad that Adam had it. Anyway, the evening went by with everyone messing about watching videos or playing games in Julie and my room, and then people slowly drifted off until there was only Adam and Charlie left in the room with us.

                'Night sis, see you tomorrow, sleep well.'

                'Yeah you too, and don't panic, I'm not planning on running off during the night or anything.'

                'Good, come here and give us a hug then.' We shared a long hug and then separated smiling. That was all that was needed to be said and then he and Charlie walked out the door. It was then that me and Julie talked, then we fell asleep. By the time that we woke up in the morning it was coming up to 11 o'clock.

                'Only 3 hours till game time, I'm really excited cos this is the first proper game that I have seen.'

                'Well stop bouncing, your making me feel sick. Everyone is meeting in the dinning room for lunch at 12, so you have an hour to get ready. How are you feeling this morning?'

                'Nervous, believe me this is nervous and excited bouncing at the same time. That is why it is so manic.'

                'Well if you don't stop bouncing soon, I will tie you to the desk chair.'

                'Ok, fine, but you have to help me decide what to wear.'

                'Clothes maybe.'

                'PLEASE Julie, this is really not the time for sarcasm, I'm really nervous. I want to make the right impression, I don't want him to think that I'm a slob or anything.'

                'It's to early in the morning for this, but fine, you go and get washed, I'll look through your clothes and see what I can find.'

                Grabbing my wash bits, I walked to the shower room and set about getting washed. When I returned tot eh room, Adam was there as well. 'Come to make sure that I haven't run away?'

                'Funny, no, I was awake and came to make sure that you were ok, only to find Julie going through your clothes, I helped her and we came to the conclusion that these jeans and this top. There is really no need to dress up for him honestly.' 

                'Ok, fine. I'll get dressed and see you at lunch then.' He gave me a hurt look. 'I may be your sister, but I'm still not getting dressed in front of you and I don't think that Julie would want to either.'

                'Oh yeah, sorry, see you at lunch then, I'm gonna go and Join Charlie in making sure that everyone is up.' Walking out the door, he gave me a reassuring smile, 'it will all be fine, I promise. I'll never leave you.'

                'Thanks, now scatt. See you later.' Shutting the door, I looked at Julie and she smiled, 'what?'

                'You two are great together, it's like you have known each other for ages.' 

                'Yeah, I feel like I have know him for ages. Anyway, I need to get dressed, seeing as we are meeting everyone in 15 minutes and you need to get dressed.'

                'Might be an idea, Eden Hall doesn't like people going to lunch in their pjs, it happened last year and they got detention.' And so we both got dressed and headed down to lunch.

                Lunch was swiftly followed by lounging around in Ken and Guy's room for half an hour until they all needed to go for warm ups. I went with them, cos I had nothing else to do and it was always fun watching the goof off. First was Cowboy round up, seeing as they needed to do it before the other team got on the ice, then they went and got their gear on, then they came out and practiced shooting against Julie and passing to each other. Then it was 2 and they went back into the locker room, where I followed, as Coach said I could. I had been ordered to sit on the bench with everyone, seeing as I helped with the drinks and everyone said that I was their good luck charm, cos I always helped Adam. I wasn't gonna argue, where else was I gonna sit, anywhere else and I would have looked like a Billy no mates. I would give you a play by play account of the game, but seeing as I don't know hockey that well yet, and I was watching Adam most of the time, I will just tell you that the Ducks won, 5-1. From what I have been told and seen of them playing, I'm not surprised. Adam played a lot better today then he did yesterday, just goes to show that it was really affecting him. Talking about that, the game ending just reminded me that it was nearly time to meet Dad. My stomach is in knots, but with Adam there, I can do it, I can do it for him.

                Adam got showered and changed in record time and met me outside the locker room, getting good lucks from the whole team, we walked together to Coach's office, turning to each other we had one final hug and then Adam knocked on the door.

                'Come in.' A voice shouted from inside. Taking a deep breath we walked in ready to explain everything to Dad.

                'Emma, I thought I saw you earlier.' What? He knew who I was? Surely I had changed from the photo? Me and Adam just looked at each other, really confused.

                'Dad, not meaning to be rude or anything, but how do you know who she is?'

                'Well, you Mum and me write to each other every year, with photos, saying what is happening in each of your lives, it is only fair.'

                'Right, well that leaves us at a loss for what to say. So what do we do now?' Adam looked at me and then at Dad and then at Coach.

                'Well I think it would be best if I left you alone. You know where we are though.' Coach walked to the door and closed it behind him.

                'Shall we sit down and then we can take it in turns to say what has been going on. Sound good to you two?' Adam and I both nodded and moved to the two chairs on this side of Coach's desk. Dad moved the one from behind it to this side to. 'Why don't you two start? How long have you known about each other?'

                'A few weeks. Emma came back from Christmas and had a photo, the one from our 3rd birthday when the tree of us were on the ice.'

                'Oh yes, I loved that, you both loved being on the ice, you were so happy that I had signed you up for the Hawks. You mother wasn't though.' Dad looked down and a sadness came over his face.

                'Yeah, anyway, long story short is that we realised that we were the people in the photo and that is it really.'

                'I was hoping that something would happen, just had to wait.'

                Speaking up for the first time, I asked him one of the questions that needed to be asked. 'Why did you never tell Adam that I went to the school?'

                'Ah, well that is slightly complicated, but I will try and explain it the best that I can. You see, by law, I wasn't allowed to.' Looking to Adam, I could tell that he was as confused as me. 'When your mum and me divorced, part of the agreement was that we would never tell either of you about each other, basically, as far as either of you were concerned, the other was dead.'

                'So that is how you got around the law, with telling me about Emma?'

                'Yeah, that is why I had to tell you that they had both died. Your mum never did tell me what she told you Emma?'

                'Simple, she didn't. It wasn't until she disowned me at Christmas that I found the photos of us, it was when I saw the baby photo that I knew that I had a twin, but I thought that he had died when you did. Does that sound really confusing?'

                'Believe me, I understood the complicated divorce rules, I can understand that.' He smiled at me, it felt so good to get that. 'So any more questions on that topic?'

                'Well there is the main one, being of, why did you and mum split in the first place, and why did you separate us?' Adam asked.

                'This might take a bit of time and I'm hungry, how about we give Orion his office back and I take you both out for Dinner, then we can talk properly and get to know each other. Plus I want to know what you did to get disowned, it sounds very interesting.' 

                'Fine, but you have tell us first.'

                'Deal, lets grab your jackets and then take you to dinner.'

A.N.: I have decided to end the fic there, it seemed like the right place, plus after Friday I am hardly gonna get to go on the computer much for the next 3 months, so hope that anyone who is reading this enjoyed it. If anyone wants to do a sequel to it then you are more than welcome to take over, I'm sure you will do a better job than I did. Thank you for staying with me until this point and I'm sorry it took me so long to update it.


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